Scoop: Battleground Dems press Biden on Chinese solar imports
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Sen. Sherrod Brown during a hearing in Washington on May 16. Photographer: Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Vulnerable congressional Democrats, led by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), are calling on the Biden administration to investigate Chinese solar companies for allegedly skirting U.S. tariffs, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Trade with China has emerged as a flashpoint in the 2024 election, with Biden and former President Trump competing with each other on whose approach is stronger or more strategic.
- Heading into November's election, Democrats in states or districts that Trump carried in 2020 are emphasizing their tough-on-China positions.
- "It's clear that China illegally subsidizes its solar industry to deliberately undermine American manufacturers," Brown and other Democrats wrote in a letter to the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
- "Holding China accountable for its illegal trade practices will allow for the growth of a more diverse, and more secure, solar supply chain, here in the United States."
Driving the news: In late April, the American Alliance of Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee filed a petition with Commerce and the ITC calling for a new investigation into solar panels that are imported from Southeast Asia.
- The lawmakers are writing in support of the domestic solar manufacturers and explaining why they think China's trade practices in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam need to be investigated.
- Brown is joined by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) Bob Casey (D-Pa.) John Fetterman (D-Pa.) Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in the Senate.
- Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) are among the signatories from the House.
Zoom out: For over two years, Democrats have been divided on the importation of solar panels from Asia, with senators like Brown arguing that they are secretly being manufactured in China -- and are only being shipped through Southeast Asia countries to avoid tariffs.
- In 2022, the White House sided with Senate Democrats who are more worried about the solar installation industry than the manufacturing side and imposed a two two-year pause on a Commerce Department investigation.
- That pause is scheduled to expire June 6.
Zoom in: The Biden administration has been warning about China's over capacity in certain industries, like electric vehicles, voicing its concern that it could flood global markets with cheap products.
- The lawmakers want to see a greater focus on the solar industry
- "Solar is one of the "new three" strategic industries – which includes electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries – that the Chinese government has decided to dominate," the lawmakers write in their letter.
Go deeper: House Republican lawmakers, led by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) have also sent a similar letter to the Commerce Department and the ITC.
- "A surge in record-breaking imports from Chinese-controlled factories, subsidized by the Chinese government in Southeast Asian Belt and Road Initiative member countries, is undermining the progress that has been made to establish a healthy domestic solar industry," Tenney and five other lawmakers write.
- "We must ensure American jobs are not jeopardized due to predatory trade practices by Chinese firms," they write.
Read the full letters sent to the Biden administration.
