Solar Hubs Among Countries Facing New U.S. 301 Tariffs
Countries with significant solar manufacturing intended for sale in the U.S. are among those facing new tariffs tied to U.S. trade restrictions and import-compliance.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the proposed tariffs Tuesday, determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act, which stem from an investigation announced on March 12.
The agency is floating a 12.5% tariff on 54 countries it found had failed to impose necessary closed borders import restrictions. It suggests a 10% duty on another six nations, which allegedly failed to properly enforce existing trade rules.
High-purity polysilicon, the first link in the solar supply chain, appears in a list of exempted goods, as does “chemical elements doped for use in electronics, in the form of discs, wafers etc.” Wafers are sliced from polysilicon ingots and chemically treated to make cells, which are assembled into modules.
The USTR did not respond to a request for confirmation on exempted goods. The release also notes that exemptions include “all articles and parts currently subject to section 232 tariffs and raw materials that if subject to the proposed additional tariffs could lead to the unavailability of domestic supply.” A Section 232 investigation into imported polysilicon began last
summer, and results have been delayed since the spring.
Indonesia falls in the latter group facing a 10% tariff. Manufacturers in the country were responsible for 36% of the modules and 16.6% of the cells imported by U.S. customers in the first quarter of 2026. The country is already facing steep anti-dumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) tariffs in an ongoing probe alongside Laos and India.
South Korea shipped 27.7% of cells imported by the U.S. in the first quarter and faces the 12.5% tariff. The higher tariff will also apply to the Philippines, responsible for 24.4% of modules and 10.4% of cells sold in the first quarter.
Countries under scrutiny in the AD/CVD probe that closed in the spring of 2025 are slated to be hit with the new tariffs. Malaysia faces the 10% tariff. Once a major supplier to the U.S., the country’s factories made up only 3.9% of first-quarter module sales. Thailand shipped 11.7% of cells to the U.S. in the first three months of this year, and Vietnam shipped 5.2% of modules in that time. Both face the 12.5% tariff.
No tariff is proposed for Ethiopia, which has gradually emerged, along with the rest of the Middle East-North Africa region, as a potential hub for upstream component manufacturing following the start of the latest AD/CVD investigation last year. Manufacturers in the country shipped 11.9% of modules sold in the U.S. in the first quarter, and 8.9% of cells sold in that window.
A group of manufacturers with U.S. facilities petitioned trade officials in May to open a circumvention probe to investigate the alleged practice of avoiding existing tariffs by doing minimal finishing work in Ethiopia.
Public hearings for the proposed tariffs are scheduled for July 7.
Reporting by Colt Shaw, cshaw@opisnet.com and Jun Won Lee, jlee1@opisnet.com; Editing by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com