WASHINGTON - US trade officials announced on Nov 29 a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four South-east Asian nations after American manufacturers complained that companies there are flooding the market with unfairly cheap goods.

It is the second of two preliminary decisions that President Joe Biden’s Commerce Department is making this year in a trade case brought by Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Arizona-based First Solar and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in US solar manufacturing.

The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused big Chinese solar panel makers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand of causing global prices to collapse by dumping products into the market.

According to a preliminary decision posted on the US Commerce Department’s website on Nov 29, the agency calculated dumping duties of between 21.31 per cent and 271.2 per cent, depending on the company, on solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Jinko Solar received duties of 21.31 per cent for products made in Malaysia and 56.51 per cent for those produced in Vietnam.

China’s Trina Solar received a dumping margin of 77.85 per cent for products it makes in Thailand and 54.46 per cent for those it produces in Vietnam.

In contrast, the Commerce Department did not lay out any dumping margin for Hanwha Qcells products made in Malaysia. In October, the department had calculated subsidy rate of 14.72 per cent for the company.

The department’s final determinations are set for April 18, 2025, with the International Trade Administration set to finalise its determinations the following June 2 and final orders expected June 9.

“With these preliminary duties, we are moving closer to...