Solar Products: Commerce to Consider Ending AD/CV Duties on Solar Panels in Battery Chargers
The Commerce Department will consider whether to end antidumping and countervailing duties on solar panels incorporated into certain battery charging and maintaining units, it said in a notice beginning a changed circumstances review of the AD/CVD orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China (A-570-010/C-570-011) and Taiwan (A-583-853) (here). The review was requested by PulseTech, an importer of the products. SolarWorld, which originally requested AD/CV duties on solar products, said it does not oppose partially revoking the orders with respect to solar-panels in battery chargers.
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In its request for a changed circumstances review, PulseTech defined products that would be partially revoked from the orders as follows:
“[S]olar panels that are: (1) less than 300,000 mm in surface area; (2) less than 27.1 watts in power; (3) coated across their entire surface with a polyurethane doming resin; and (4) joined to a battery charging and maintaining unit (which is an acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (‘ABS’) box that incorporates a light emitting diode (‘LED’)) by coated wires that include a connector to permit the incorporation of an extension cable. The battery charging and maintaining unit utilizes high-frequency triangular pulse waveforms designed to maintain and extend the life of batteries through the reduction of lead sulfate crystals. The above described battery charging and maintaining unit is currently available under the registered trademark ‘SolarPulse.’”
Commerce will consider whether “all or substantially all” U.S. manufacturers support the partial revocation, and will accept comments on the issue until Nov. 28. The agency will then issue preliminary results, providing the opportunity for further comments. Commerce’s final results are due in July 2017, unless all parties agree to the outcome of the review, in which case the final results will be issued in December.
(Federal Register 11/10/16)