President Joe Biden vetoed a bipartisan bill that would crack down on a tariff loophole that benefited China’s solar industry, according to a White House press release.
Biden previously threatened to veto the legislation that would have restored tariffs on Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam that Chinese companies have allegedly been working out of to avoid U.S. solar tariffs. The president vetoed the bill, which would have repealed the Biden administration’s moratorium on solar tariffs in the four Southeast Asian countries, which the White House believes were necessary to satisfy U.S. demands for solar panel production per Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
HUAI AN, CHINA – JUNE 11: Workers install solar panels at the construction site of 40MW photovoltaic on-grid power project of China Huaneng Group on June 11, 2018 in Huai an, China. The first phase with installed capacity of 30 megawatts will be put into operation at the end of June this year. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
“For too long, because of unfair trade practices and underinvestment in domestic manufacturing, the United States has been reliant on China for solar energy products,” Biden wrote per the press release. “From day one, my Administration has bet on America to create a strong solar supply chain. We have worked to create good-paying jobs and build manufacturing facilities in the United States for solar energy and other important global industries — and our plan is working.”
Some Chinese firms, some of which are linked to slave labor, were assembling their products in the four countries to avoid the America’s solar tariffs, a Commerce Department investigation indicated, according to Bloomberg. (RELATED: House Passes Bipartisan Bill To Repeal Biden’s China Solar Rules)
“Passage of this resolution bets against American innovation,” the president wrote. “It would undermine these efforts and create deep uncertainty for American businesses and workers in the solar industry.”
While proponents of the legislation argued it was necessary to bolster the U.S. solar industry while also holding China accountable, the resolution faced pushback from American solar production advocates who claim the moratorium is necessary. Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in an April 19 statement that the House Ways and Means Committee’s advancement of the resolution “took a hammer to business certainty and American energy independence.”
In 2022, solar panel installations tanked partly due to supply chain issues created by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s detention of Chinese solar panels due to alleged violations of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Roughly 2,600 imports were seized by CBP from October to January, amounting to $806 million.
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