US slaps solar-panel tariffs on ASEAN countries

Even before Donald Trump returns to office, the US is moving to impose more tariffs. The Biden Administration views the solar industry as a critical sector, and the Commerce Department just slapped significant duties on exports from the ASEAN nations of Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.

In 2023, these four countries accounted for about 80% of US imports of solar panels and related components. Some of the ASEAN production investment has been driven by Chinese companies subject to previous rounds of US tariffs.

We've compared the solar industry's growth in Malaysia with Indonesia – a country that was notably excluded from the recent rounds of tariffs.

Malaysia is the world's third-largest exporter of photovoltaic (PV) products, trailing only China and Vietnam. Exports in ringgit terms have risen steadily over the past two decades, but accelerated in the early years of the Biden administration. Exports peaked in 2023, and have fallen sharply since then.

Imports – including supplies of PV component supplies made in China – have risen less, but have stayed steadier recently. We also combined the export and import figures to chart how the trade surplus in the Malaysian solar sector spiked and declined recently.

The Indonesian case is strikingly different; Chinese investment in the sector came later, and the country was a net importer of solar panels and related equipment until this year. Indonesian solar exports are dwarfed by their Malaysian equivalent so far, but should that change, the Trump administration could turn to applying the tariffs to more nations.

The Department of Commerce is imposing countervailing duties (CVD) on silicon solar cell imports, and preliminarily decided to enforce anti-dumping (AD) tariffs as well after complaints from US manufacturers that solar technology was being sold at a loss. The Commerce Department says it has calculated that dumping duties will be in a wide range – from about 21% to 271% – depending on the company and the country of manufacture.

(For instance, the Chinese firm Jinko Solar faces duties of 21.31% percent for products made in Malaysia and 56.51% for those produced in Vietnam.)

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