ITC Finds Injury In China Solar Case, But Denies 'Critical Circumstances'

摘要

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) this week unanimously found that U.S. industry is injured by dumped and subsidized imports of crystalline photovoltaic cells and modules from China, in the largest U.S. trade remedy case ever brought against the country. As a result of this finding, the Commerce Department will now issue antidumping (AD) duties and countervailing duties (CVDs) against imports. At the same time, however, the ITC made a negative determination on "critical circumstances," which means that the duties will not be applied retroactively to goods that entered the U.S. prior to Commerce's preliminary determinations in the case earlier this year. This finding on critical circumstances divided the ITC commissioners, with four voting against an affirmative finding and two supporting it, according to a Nov. 7 press release. In both its preliminary and final AD and CVD determinations, Commerce found that the imports at issue met the critical circumstances threshold because they surged in advance of the preliminary duties being put in place. Commerce found critical circumstances in both the CVD and AD investigation for all respondent companies, with the exception of AD duties applied to the firm Suntech.