In response to a Commerce Department investigation, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) carried out a survey that found 90% of companies polled said the actions of the Commerce Department have had a serious or devastating impact on their bottom line.
The Commerce Department is waging a circumvention case against solar parts from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, which some say has prevented the import of important solar parts into the United States.
"This investigation is based on a meritless trade case that is hammering the solar industry in real-time and diminishing our efforts as a country to tackle climate change," SEIA President and CEO Abigail Hopper said in a recent press release from her organization. "We urge the administration to expedite this investigation and end this unnecessary roadblock to our clean energy future."
Hopper also took the opportunity to speak in favor of free trade and against tariffs.
"We've said that tariffs are not the right way to incentivize manufacturing, and that it is going to take time and policy commitment to move manufacturing into the United States at the scale that's needed," she said in the release.
Hopper pointed out that support for the United States' longtime trade partners should be the higher priority.
"The countries named in the petition have been reliable trading partners, and we need their products, in the near-term at least, while we fight to establish a sustained and powerful manufacturing presence here in America," she said.
