Under U.S. AD/CVD law, DOC will normally determine within 20 days from the date on which the petitions are filed whether SolarWorld’s petitions are legally adequate to warrant the initiation of the requested AD and CVD investigations. If DOC initiates investigations, it will be required to issue preliminary determinations no later than August 2014 in the AD investigation and July 2014 in the CVD investigation. In most cases, duties will not apply to any imports that enter the United States before the date of the preliminary ruling.
As a result of the filing of the petitions, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will immediately initiate a preliminary investigation to determine whether the imports at issue have caused, or threaten to cause, material injury to the U.S. PV cell industry. The ITC must issue its preliminary determination within 45 days of the date of petition filing. In the coming days, the ITC will send questionnaires to U.S. importers, foreign producers/exporters and U.S. producers of PV cells covered by the new petition.
SolarWorld filed its new petitions against the backdrop of ongoing administrative, judicial and settlement proceedings involving the existing AD and CVD orders and a related Chinese AD/CVD proceeding against U.S.-origin polysilicon, the major raw material in the production of PV cells. The DOC this month will launch its first administrative reviews of the existing AD/CVD orders, which will determine the final duty liability for entries of covered PV cells imported during the period May 25, 2012, through November 30, 2013, for the AD order, and during the period March 26, 2012, through November 30, 2013, for the CVD order. The U.S. Court of International Trade is also currently considering a number of appeals arising from the existing AD and CVD orders, including a challenge filed by SolarWorld against DOC’s determination in the original PV cells investigations to limit the scope to Chinese-origin PV cells.
The new petitions seem certain to complicate ongoing discussions between the U.S. and Chinese governments to settle the existing orders and related proceedings. While China was able to achieve a settlement agreement with the European Union that sets minimum prices for Chinese-origin PV products, talks between China and the United States have shown little progress in recent months. Recent efforts between the two governments to settle China’s preliminary AD/CVD measures against
U.S.-origin polysilicon failed to produce an agreement.
U.S. importers of products covered by the new petitions should quickly assess their exposure to AD and CVD liability and revisit their commercial arrangements as may be warranted.