Decision Follows a Letter Led by Senator Rosen Urging Commerce Secretary to Stop Threat of New Tariffs on Solar Imports
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade, and Export Promotion, applauded the U.S. Department of Commerce this week for rejecting a series of anonymously filed petitions to expand job-killing tariffs on solar panels and cells imported from Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand. Affordable solar panels, almost all of which are made abroad, support over 200,000 workers in the US, including more than 6,000 Nevadans.
In late September, Senator Rosen led a group of a dozen senators in sending a letter urging Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to carefully assess the validity of the anonymously filed petitions to expand these solar tariffs and detailing how they would threaten American solar jobs and climate action.
“I’m pleased to see that, following my call for action, the Commerce Department has rejected anonymously filed proposals to expand tariffs on solar panels and cells,” said Senator Rosen. “This decision will save thousands of good-paying solar jobs in America and ensure that ongoing and future solar projects can continue on schedule — helping to power our nation’s clean energy economy.”
BACKGROUND: In December of last year, Senator Rosen joined a letter to the Biden-Harris transition team urging the new Administration to repeal tariffs – first implemented by the Trump Administration – on imported silicon solar cells and panels. As a result of the Trump tariffs, domestic prices of solar panels are now among the highest in the world and significantly above the global average, which has severely impacted domestic solar panel manufacturing and job creation. Over 85 percent of American solar jobs are in non-manufacturing fields like installation, development, sales, and maintenance, all of which depend on the availability of affordable solar panels.
In the 115th Congress, as a member of the House, Rosen introduced the bipartisan Protecting American Solar Jobs Act (H.R. 5571) which would repeal the Administration’s 30% tariff on imported solar panels and modules.
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