© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Solar installers from Baker Electric install solar panels on the roof of a residential building in Scripps Ranch, San Diego, California, U.S. October 14, 2016. Picture taken October 14, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Blake
It’s Nicholas Groom
(Reuters) – A group of U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Thursday will pass a resolution to end President Joe Biden’s suspension of tariffs from four Southeast Asian countries, according to Reuters.
The Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to change federal laws by majority vote, aims to boost domestic solar manufacturers, who struggle to compete with cheaper panels made overseas – often by Chinese companies.
“We cannot allow foreign power producers to violate trade laws, especially when it comes to harming American workers and businesses,” Representative Dan Kildee of Michigan, a Democrat, said in a statement.
Kildee is launching the CRA with three Republicans – Bill Posey of Florida, Garret Graves of Louisiana, and Bob Latta of Ohio, and two other Democrats – Bill Pascrell of New Jersey and Terri Sewell of Alabama.
The CRA is a 1996 law that allows Congress to amend federal laws by majority vote. A CRA bill expires if it is not passed within 60 days of its enactment and prevents the government from passing “substantially similar” legislation in the future.
The policy’s repeal would be a blow to the US solar industry, which says tariffs on panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam could halt the development of clean energy projects needed to meet Biden’s climate change goals.
These four countries account for nearly 80% of US imports.
In response to these concerns, Mr. Biden last year removed tariffs on solar products from four Southeast Asian countries while the Commerce Department investigated whether the imports were hindering Chinese-made jobs and violating U.S. trade laws.
A few months later, Commerce issued a preliminary decision to impose new duties on certain products from those countries, but it won’t happen until June 2024 because of Biden’s two-year suspension.
The White House has said the tax cuts will act as a bridge as the US sector expands. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed last year, includes major incentives for domestic production of clean energy.
