Bernd Janzen Quoted by Solar Industry on Solar Tariff Rates

Solar Industry, for its article “Managing The Ups And Downs Of Solar Tariffs Requires Agile Thinking And Deep Pockets,” quoted Akin Gump international trade partner Bernd Janzen on the variability of tariff rates, among other topics, with regard to the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (lTC) recent decision to uphold tariffs on imports of solar photovoltaic products from China and Taiwan.

Among the topics Janzen discussed:

• Parties learning to manage their exposure in order to reduce their tariff duty rates: “In an investigation, everybody is pretty much walloped on the respondent side. Over time, you can plan pricing and commercial behavior in a way to try to mitigate the duty risk.”
• Lower rates resulting from the Solar I U.S.-China solar trade investigations: “In the Solar I administrative review, which we have just seen the preliminary results of review, you could say that it is consistent with an overall trend you see in many cases where, over time, rates tend to come down somewhat.”
• The potential effects of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s evolving methodologies: “Within this larger trend line of rates tending to go down over time, you can also see changes in methodology that could cause a rate to spike back up. The rate we just saw in this preliminary result of administrative review—the combined roughly 18 percent rate—could be higher in the final result of review that will be issued this summer. Could be the same. Could be a little lower. Could be higher.”
• The difference between Commerce’s methodologies in Solar I and Solar II: “They gather the same kind of data, and they do the same legal analysis; it’s just a different time period and a different set of products because of the scope of coverage being different.”

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