The Biden administration plans to appeal a federal trade court decision that excludes bifacial panels from import tariffs. The current Presidential Administration is seeking to extend the Trump era tariffs that were applied to bifacial and single sided solar panels. Specifically, the President is seeking to appeal a decision made last November by the U.S. Court of International Trade (USITC).
In addition to striking down the bifacial tariffs, the USITC’s November ruling had also rejected Trump’s higher tariff rates for
single-sided solar panels, from 18 percent to 15 percent. The court also found that the federal government should return extra
money it had collected in the period when Trump’s tariffs had gone into effect — a sum that SEIA spokespeople say would
reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars — to solar developers (Energywire, Nov. 17, 2021).
It is unclear why the administration is appealing the USITC decision.
A group of eight bipartisan senators sent a letter yesterday to President Biden urging him not to extend the Trump administration’s tariffs on solar panel imports, ahead of a high-stakes decision for clean energy.