US hurting itself by extending tariffs on solar products, says ministry

The recent extension of tariffs on imported solar products by the United States is unhelpful for the development of the US domestic photovoltaic industry and will cause distortion to normal global trade order of the new energy products, according to an official of the Ministry of Commerce.

Following the US announcement on Friday that the levies due to expire Sunday would remain effective for another four years, the official said in an online statement issued by the ministry on Saturday that the US has imposed various trade restrictions on imported solar products in the past decade, and this time, the US insisted on extending the measures under Section 201 despite strong opposition from related parties home and abroad.

Solar products are important clean energy products for tackling climate change and for countries worldwide to realize their goals on greenhouse emission reduction, the official said, adding China is willing to cooperate with other countries to promote greenhouse emission reduction, climate resilience and sustainable development, with the pressing climate change and increasing important shift toward clean energy.

The official also called for concrete actions by the US to address climate change, promote global free trade, and support the rule-based multilateral trading system together with other nations, to help with free trade of new energy products and make contributions to global economic development based on low greenhouse emissions and benefit all human beings.

The US started to impose the tariffs on solar cells and modules in February 2018, using the so-called Section 201. The tariffs started at 30 percent and began to fall by 5 percentage points each year over the course of four years to land at 15 percent in the final year.