US solar giants demand tariffs in new trade battle against India, Indonesia and Laos
Their July 11 petition claims manufacturers in these countries sell panels below fair value, a practice called 'dumping', while receiving illegal government subsidies.
The group, called the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, previously won similar tariffs against Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Thailand earlier this year.
The alliance argues manufacturers simply relocated from tariff-hit Southeast Asian nations to Indonesia and Laos to continue 'flooding the U.S. market with artificially cheap panels'.
Indian producers face fresh accusations of using government aid to undercut American prices by 40-60%. "These countries became the next dumping grounds after our last victory," said alliance lawyer Tim Brightbill.
Commerce Department data shows imports from the three targeted nations surged 78% in Q1 2024 as other Asian supplies dropped.
Domestic producers warn new tariffs are essential to protect $20+ billion in recent U.S. factory investments.
First Solar is expanding Ohio production while Qcells builds a $2.5 billion Georgia supply chain, projects creating 8,000 jobs.
Without tariffs, they argue Chinese-backed companies will 'crush American solar manufacturing before it scales up'.
The petition specifically names eight foreign producers, including Laos' SunKing and India's Waaree Energies.
Asian governments and climate advocates oppose the tariffs, warning they could raise U.S. solar prices by 30% and slow clean energy adoption.
The US Commerce Department must decide by August 12 whether to investigate. The move tests the White House' balancing act between supporting domestic manufacturing and keeping solar affordable amid climate goals.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
11 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Indian cloud companies to storm local skies with low-cost advantage
Synopsis Indian companies are competing in the cloud market. They offer local data storage and infrastructure. These firms aim to undercut global giants on cost. Airtel, Jio, Tata Communications, and Yotta are key players. They target the public sector and regulated industries. Experts note challenges in technology and migration. Hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon are also expanding in India. Agencies Indian corporates are building muscle to challenge bigger global rivals in the fast-growing cloud market, with offerings that store data applications and related infrastructure within the country, referred to as sovereign cloud. These homegrown firms are underlining lower costs as their biggest advantage against the foreign competitors. Bharti Airtel's Xtelify, Reliance's JioCloud for SMEs, Tata Communications' Vayu, and Yotta's Shakti are tailored for local enterprises, especially in public sector and other regulated industries. And they are aiming to take on hyperscalers Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform, positioning themselves as affordable and secure alternatives with cost savings of 30%-50% over the global giants. Hyperscalers are large cloud providers offering massive computing resources and infrastructure. However, factors such as limited technology depth, lack of ecosystem maturity, and high migration costs from the global cloud providers are limiting the ambitious growth plans of the Indian companies, say experts. They added that interoperability between cloud providers is almost non-existent, making migration costly and technically complex."The emergence of indigenous cloud platforms represents a market response to India's sovereign cloud policy framework, creating domestic alternatives for regulated sectors," said Jitesh Karlekar, director-research at real estate research and advisory firm JLL. "However, these nascent providers will need to rapidly build technical sophistication, security credentials, and operational scale to effectively compete with established global platforms." According to an IDC study, 15-20% of Indian companies are adopters of some sovereign cloud solution for ensuring compliance and security of their core applications and data. "Sovereign cloud is still in the early stages with little adoption in India," said Rajiv Ranjan, associate director, cloud and AI at research firm IDC India. "A key reason for not migrating to sovereign cloud could be higher costs and the risks associated with migrating applications which might be time consuming and cause business disruptions." He added that enterprises in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) space need to be also fully confident with adequate security and compliance norms being met with the domestic offerings. Meanwhile, hyperscalers have rapidly grown their footprint in India through pacts with mobile phone operators. In 2019, Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with telecom market leader Reliance Jio for co-development of affordable cloud-based solutions, particularly targeted towards SMEs and startups. For its free consumer cloud storage, Jio has netted over 35 million active users. A year later, second-ranked telco Bharti Airtel signed a deal with AWS to develop differentiated Airtel Cloud products. It also tied up with Google Cloud the same year to offer G-Suite services such as Gmail, and Google Docs to to a study by policy body Centre for Internet and Digital Economy, India's $8.3 billion cloud market revenue is dominated by international vendors, with Microsoft (27%) and AWS (15%) together having a 42% share, with all other competitors, including Salesforce and SAP, having shares of less than 5% each. In the pure infrastructure space, Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud have a combined 87% market share. Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its sovereign cloud, with its vice chairman, Gopal Vittal, stressing that the telco's offering will lead to cost savings of 30-40% over rivals due to its mix of network and cloud the Centre for Internet and Digital Economy study on the competitive landscape in the Indian cloud market showed new entrants are struggling to match the free cloud credits and startup support offered by global global companies provide large sums in cloud credits and access to accelerator programs, giving them a strong edge in customer acquisition, said industry experts. In contrast, local firms often restrict credits to a small circle of existing clients and face difficulty competing for cloud-native startups. However, Indian providers are attracting small and mid-sized businesses by offering 30-70% cost savings and greater billing transparency, areas where hyperscalers fall short due to complex pricing and poor cost visibility, the study showed. The global rivals with technical strength though are better equipped to forecast and manage cloud costs, offering better expense visibility to their clients, compared with their smaller rivals.
Indian Express
13 minutes ago
- Indian Express
US proposes new drone rules that could lead to Starbucks, Amazon deliveries
The US Transportation Department is proposing new rules to speed deployment of drones beyond the visual line of sight of operators, a key change needed to advance commercial uses like package deliveries. 'We are going to unleash American drone dominance,' Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a press conference on Tuesday. Under current rules, operators need to get individual waivers or exemptions to use drones without visual line of sight. The department said eliminating those requirements 'will significantly expand the use-case for drone technologies in areas like: manufacturing, farming, energy production, filmmaking, and the movement of products including lifesaving medications.' The proposal includes new requirements for manufacturers, operators, and drone traffic-management services to keep drones safely separated from other drones and airplanes. 'It's going to change the way that people and products move throughout our airspace… so you may change the way you get your Amazon package, you may get a Starbucks cup of coffee from a drone,' Duffy said. 'Industry needs this rule to make sure they can use this technology that's going to allow them to do business more efficiently and effectively.' Amazon resumed testing drone deliveries earlier this year at two locations in Texas and Arizona. Amazon has a goal of delivering 500 million packages annually by drone by the end of 2030. Under the proposal, operations would occur at or below 400 feet above ground from pre-designated locations approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Operators would identify boundaries and approximate daily flights and takeoff, landing and loading areas and ensure procedures if communications with drones are lost. Drones would yield to all manned aircraft broadcasting their position and not interfere with operations at airports. The Transportation Security Administration would require flight coordinators and others to obtain security threat assessments and a fingerprint-based criminal history records check. Lawmakers and many state officials have raised concerns about drones being used to target high-profile US events like the FIFA World Cup. Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International CEO Michael Robbins praised the risk-based proposal as 'a critical step toward enabling drone operations that will enhance safety, transform commercial services, and strengthen public safety with drones as a force multiplier.
Hindustan Times
13 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Hezbollah chief says missiles will fall on Israel if it resumes war on Lebanon
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem threatened Israel directly for the first time in months in a televised speech on Tuesday, saying missiles would fall on it if it resumed a broad war on Lebanon. Lebanon's Hezbollah Chief Naim Qassem gives a televised speech from an unknown location, July 30, 2025 in this screen grab from video.(Reuters) His comments came as Lebanon's cabinet met to discuss the fate of Hezbollah's arsenal, after Washington pressured Lebanese officials to commit to disarming the Iran-backed group and amid fears that Israel could intensify strikes if they fail to do so. Qassem said that, should Israel engage in a "large-scale aggression" against Lebanon, Hezbollah, Lebanon's army and Lebanon's people would defend themselves. "This defence will lead to missiles falling inside the Israeli entity, and all the security they have built over eight months will collapse within an hour," he said. A US-brokered ceasefire in November brought an end to months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. The war killed much of Hezbollah's leadership - including Qassem's predecessor Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah - and destroyed much of its arsenal. Qassem said the war had killed 5,000 Hezbollah fighters and wounded 13,000, the first official toll the group has given. But he said the organisation remained in good order, with fighters ready to make "the harshest sacrifices" if needed. Minutes after he spoke, dozens of men on motorcycles carrying Hezbollah's yellow flags emerged from its strongholds in Beirut's southern suburbs for the second day in a row. REJECTS 'EXTERNAL DICTATES' Washington and Beirut have been in talks since June on a US roadmap to fully disarm Hezbollah in exchange for a halt to Israeli strikes, the withdrawal of Israeli troops still occupying five points in south Lebanon and funds to rebuild areas destroyed by Israeli bombardment during the war. But with little progress on disarmament, Washington's patience began wearing thin and it pressured Lebanon's ministers to swiftly make a public pledge so that talks could continue. Qassem pushed back against the conditions, saying Israel must implement the ceasefire in full by halting its military activities in Lebanon before any other discussion. "Solve the problem of the (Israeli) aggression, and then we will discuss the issue of the weapons," he said. Addressing Lebanese officials, he said: 'I hope you don't waste time on the storms stirred up by external dictates.'
