Wind tower makers file China complaint

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U.S. manufacturers of wind turbine towers are looking for relief from Asian steel subsidies.

A new front in what may become a renewable energy trade war against China emerged this week when four U.S. manufacturers of wind turbine towers filed a complaint against China and Vietnam Thursday seeking tariff protection from Asian steel subsidies.

The complaint contains echoes of the one filed by U.S. solar panel manufacturers, led by SolarWorld's U.S. operations in Hillsboro, in October.

The New York Times reports that the complaint is likely to increase the already escalating trade frictions between the United States and China.

Wiley Rein LLP, the tower manufacturers' law firm for the complaint, is the same one retained by the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing.

Alan H. Price, a lawyer with Wiley Rein, said turbine tower imports from China and Vietnam had doubled this year.

"Like in so much of clean energy sector, there’s tremendous Chinese government subsidies that have gone into this sector and distorting it," Price told the New York Times.

The complaint was filed by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, a group made up of Trinity Structural Towers of Clinton, Ill.; DMI Industries of Fargo, N.D.; Katana Summit of Columbus, Neb.; and Broadwind Energy of Naperville, Ill.

Officials from Vestas, which has its North American headquarters in Portland, weren't immediately available for comment on the complaint. But the Oregonian reports that the company was not joining the complaint.

The U.S. Commerce Department has 20 days to decide whether or not to begin a formal investigation of the complaint.

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