SolarWorld readies for big vote on Friday

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The SolarWorld-led complaint against China will get a committee vote in Washington, D.C. Friday.

SolarWorld Industry America Inc.’s showdown with China faces a critical point Friday, when the U.S. International Trade Commission casts a vote on whether China’s trade practices are be deemed a threat.

But don’t expect much in the way of debate.

Ben Santarris, a spokesman for Hillsboro-based SolarWorld Industries America Inc., said on Thursday from Washington, D.C., that Friday’s proceedings will be both quick and formulaic.

“There’s no debate, hearing of testimony, or anything else but a vote,” he said.

The company, the U.S. division of Germany’s SolarWorld AG, in October led a coalition of U.S. solar manufacturers in filing a trade complaint seeking tariffs of more than 100 percent on imported Chinese panels and cells. The SolarWorld-led Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing claims that China has been dumping low-cost, subsidized panels into the U.S. market.

The six-person committee — split evenly among Republicans and Democrats — at around 11 a.m. Eastern is expected to cast a vote on whether there is enough evidence to show that U.S. manufacturers have been harmed, face the threat of harm, or face no harm as a result of China’s trade policies.

If there are at least three votes in favor of either a threat or actual harm, the case will proceed.

And SolarWorld appears confident that will be the verdict.

“We’re very confident with the outcome of it because there clearly has been harm in the industry from the actions by the Chinese suppliers and the Chinese government,” Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc., told Reuters Thursday.

Meanwhile, parties on both sides of the debate this week have been posturing to show support for their cause is growing.

The SolarWorld-led coalition on Monday issued a news release saying that the organization — which began as a group of seven manufacturers — has swelled to 150 different employers of more than 11,000 American workers.

On Thursday, an opposition group called the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy — made up generally of distributors, installers, and manufacturers that have come to rely on low-cost panels — said it has grown from a group of 25 on Nov. 8 to 132 companies that employ 13,134 people.

The tit-for-tat could continue for some time.

Santarris said the next scheduled event comes January 12, when the commission could give a preliminary determination of countervailing duties — that is, duties to counter the subsidies that have allegedly given the Chinese companies an unfair advantage.

That hearing could be extended to March 27, which would also be the day the commission could give an initial determination of anti-dumping tariffs — that is, penalties for dumping unfairly cheap product into the U.S. market.

That, too, could be extended into May, Santarris said.

Also on January 12, the commission could decide whether a set of so-called “critical circumstances” exist that, should it determine tariffs are necessary, would call for enforcing the tariffs retroactively, as far back as three months.

Such a move is designed to guard against a surge of imports from Chinese companies looking to avoid forthcoming tariffs.

Of course, none of this bureaucratic maneuvering can stop China from acting sooner on its own trade investigations.

China’s Commerce Ministry announced last week that it would launch its own investigation into U.S. renewable energy policy.

Stay tuned.