Commerce suggests 100%+ tariffs for solar panels from India, Indonesia, Laos

The Dept. of Commerce has released its preliminary countervailing obligation (CVD) quantities in an investigation on photo voltaic cell imports from India, Indonesia and Laos. India has a normal 125.87% subsidy charge, Indonesia’s normal charge is 104.38% and Laos acquired an 80.67% charge.

CVDs are positioned on imports to cancel-out subsidies given to producers in and by the exporting nation. On this case, Commerce has determined that photo voltaic panel producers in all three international locations have been incentivized by their very own markets to make photo voltaic panels for the U.S. market. These preliminary obligation quantities will likely be enforced by Customs, and money deposits will begin being collected on imported cells, whether or not or not assembled into panels.

India preliminary subsidy charges

Indonesia preliminary subsidy charges

*PT REC Photo voltaic Indonesia has no relation to REC Group, working in Singapore.

Laos preliminary subsidy charges

The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, a bunch of home photo voltaic producers, petitioned the federal government in July 2025 for an antidumping/CVD investigation, alleging that photo voltaic panel producers had relocated their operations to India, Indonesia and Laos to keep away from tariffs positioned on imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee (ITC) determined in August that the U.S. business has been materially injured by imports from the three international locations, and Commerce has been performing its personal investigation into the matter. With at this time’s preliminary CVD reveal, the business awaits the preliminary AD quantities, that are scheduled to be introduced in April.

“Right now’s vote is a crucial step towards restoring honest competitors within the U.S. photo voltaic market,” stated Tim Brightbill, co-chair of Wiley Rein’s Worldwide Commerce Observe and lead lawyer for the Alliance. “American producers are investing billions of {dollars} to rebuild home capability and create good-paying jobs. These investments can not succeed if unfairly traded imports are allowed to distort the market.”

Commerce reviewed Indian photo voltaic panel import information from April 1, 2024, by means of March 31, 2025 (India’s most up-to-date fiscal 12 months), and reviewed information from the 2024 calendar 12 months for Indonesia and Laos, finally discovering photo voltaic panel exporters have been backed in all three international locations.

The Alliance, which incorporates First Photo voltaic, Mission Photo voltaic, Qcells and Talon PV, additionally filed a “crucial circumstances” allegation last month with the Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. The doc stated that imports from India, Indonesia and Laos have surged, exercise that “strongly signifies that these imports are being rushed into the US in an effort to keep away from the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties.” The Alliance requested an expedited critical-circumstances choice, which might impose duties retroactively on imports entered as much as 90 days earlier than the tariffs are introduced.

Commerce launched particulars on this preliminary CVD choice that it didn’t discover crucial circumstances for Laos, as imports haven’t surged by greater than 15%. Commerce additionally didn’t discover a surge in imports from India as an entire, however did discover a surge particularly from Mundra Photo voltaic. Regarding Indonesia, Commerce decided that imports from PT REC Photo voltaic Indonesia didn’t considerably enhance however imports from Blue Sky and “all others” did. An affirmative preliminary crucial circumstances choice has been made for Indonesia, excluding PT REC Photo voltaic Indonesia, and for Indian imports from Mundra Photo voltaic.

As soon as the preliminary AD charges are revealed round April 21, remaining AD/CVD charges are scheduled to be launched on Sept. 3, 2026. Solely as soon as a remaining dedication is given by the ITC (scheduled for Oct. 19) will Customs start gathering the ultimate tariff quantities.

All three international locations are underneath varied tariffs put in place by President Donald Trump, together with the emergency Sec. 122 tariffs introduced this previous weekend. India just lately reached an settlement with the US for a general 18% tariff.

Final week, the US and Indonesia signed a general trade agreement. In trade for Indonesia importing $15 billion of U.S. vitality (coal, oil and fuel), $4.5 billion of U.S. agricultural merchandise and $13.5 billion in American airplane gear, the US will place a 19% import tariff on all Indonesian items.

See where the United States imported solar panels from in 2025. We just posted news with graphs and charts.