The Trump administration set preliminary duties of 126% on solar imports from India after determining the country unfairly subsidized manufacturing.
The US Commerce Department also set initial levies from 86% to 143% for Indonesia and 81% for Laos. The rates are based on a determination of foreign subsidies that the US says allowed exporters from the countries to undercut products from domestic solar producers.
While the duties aim to benefit domestic manufacturers, they heighten uncertainty for an industry not favored by US President Donald Trump and threaten to increase costs for producers as well as for consumers.
These levies would be different from Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, which the US Supreme Court struck down last week. In response, Trump issued new 10% duties that he’s threatened to raise to 15%. The president had also struck a bilateral trade deal with India earlier this month that had sought to reduce economic tensions between the countries.
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