The Dept. of Commerce has released its preliminary antidumping duty (AD) amounts in an investigation on solar cell imports from India, Indonesia and Laos.
The preliminary AD margins are 123.04% for all Indian producers, 35.17% for all Indonesian producers, and 22.46% for all Laotian producers.
Combined with the preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) determinations, India has the highest AD/CVD rates of the three countries.
The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, a group of domestic solar manufacturers, petitioned the government in July 2025 for an AD/CVD investigation, alleging that solar panel manufacturers had relocated their operations to India, Indonesia and Laos to avoid tariffs placed on imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) determined in August that the U.S. industry has been materially injured by imports from the three countries, and Commerce has been performing its own investigation into the matter.
With the preliminary tariff amounts out now, the next date to look toward is Sept. 3, 2026, for the final duty determination from Commerce. A final decision from the ITC is then scheduled to come Oct. 19. Issuance of the AD/CVD orders would be one week later on Oct. 26.
The Alliance, which includes First Solar, Mission Solar, Qcells and Talon PV, also filed a “critical circumstances” allegation in January 2026 with the Secretary of Commerce. The document said that imports from India, Indonesia and Laos have surged, activity that “strongly indicates that these imports are being rushed into the United States in an effort to avoid the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties.” The Alliance requested an expedited critical-circumstances decision, which would impose duties retroactively on imports entered up to 90 days before the tariffs are announced.
In its preliminary CVD determination, Commerce revealed varied critical circumstance decisions. In the preliminary AD decision, Commerce determined that critical circumstances did exist for Indian producers Mundra Solar, Kowa and Premier Energie, but not for all others. In Indonesia, Commerce determined that imports from Blue Sky and PT REC Solar Indonesia did not significantly increase but imports from all others did. Critical circumstances exist in Laos against all cell producers except Solarspace.
Final determinations with the critical circumstances should be released alongside the final AD/CVD determinations.
