The US Commerce Department set final countervailing and anti-dumping duty rates on Monday for crystalline solar cells and modules imported from four southeast Asian countries.

Cells and modules from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia are affected.

Importers have already been posting cash deposits for the duties since last fall. The adjustments Monday to the preliminary rates set last fall will apply from the date the final rates are published in the Federal Register.  

The countervailing duties apply to solar cells and modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia and a limited number of suppliers in Thailand and Vietnam on or after October 4, 2024. They apply to other suppliers in Vietnam and Thailand as of July 6, 2024.

The anti-dumping duties apply to equipment imported from Cambodia, Malaysia and a limited number of suppliers in Thailand and Vietnam on or after December 4, 2024.  They apply to other suppliers in Vietnam and Thailand as of September 5, 2024.

The duties stack on top of other tariffs. The countervailing and anti-dumping duties are in addition to existing section 201 solar tariffs that are currently 14%, but are scheduled to end on February 6, 2026, and to "reciprocal" tariffs that took effect on April 5, 2025 at a 10% rate and are scheduled to increase to 46% for Vietnam, 24% for Malaysia, 36% for Thailand and 49% for Cambodia on July 9, 2025. President Trump suspended the increased reciprocal tariff rates for 90 days to give other countries time to negotiate trade concessions with the United States.    

The countervailing and anti-dumping duties are in response to a petition that a group of seven solar panel manufacturers called the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee filed with the US government in April 2024.   

They do not have to be paid on cells and modules that are already subject to separate "anti-circumvention" duties on equipment that Commerce found in an earlier Auxin investigation is being manufactured in southeast Asia using Chinese parts to avoid high tariffs on solar equipment manufactured wholly in China. The country-wide anti-circumvention rate to offset subsidies is 238.95% and the country-wide rate to offset dumping is 9.07%, although some suppliers have different individual rates.

Importers have already been posting cash deposits for the new anti-dumping and countervailing duties after the Commerce Department announced the preliminary rates last fall. 

The final rates are mostly higher than the preliminary rates and in some cases significantly so.    

The following table shows the country-wide final rates announced Monday in comparison to the preliminary rates that were already in effect. 

Some suppliers have been assigned their own rates.

A full list of final rates for individual suppliers can be found here. The country-wide rates apply to suppliers not listed in the table.

For purposes of comparison, the preliminary countervailing rates announced last October can be found here.

The preliminary anti-dumping rates announced last November can be found here.

Anti-dumping duties increase prices for equipment that is “dumped” in the US at discounted prices that are below what the manufacturers charge customers in their home markets. Countervailing duties are supposed to offset subsidies that foreign manufacturers receive from their governments that allow them to export products at prices that are below what unsubsidized manufacturers can afford to charge. The Commerce Department offset subsidies this time that it said manufacturers in the four countries are receiving from China rather than focusing solely on subsidies from the countries where the factories are located. 

US Customs will not start liquidating cash deposits posted for the duties until the US International Trade Commission confirms that US solar panel manufacturers have been injured by the southeast Asian imports. The International Trade Commission is expected to announce its findings in June. It already made a preliminary finding of injury in June 2024.

Roughly 84% of solar cells and modules imported into the US during the fourth quarter of 2023 came from the four southeast Asian countries. Annual import volumes from the four countries in 2023, the most recent year for which annual data is available, are shown in the following table.

There are rumors that a new investigation targeting cells and modules originating in India, Indonesia and Laos will be launched in late spring or early summer this year.