Today, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17), Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Mike Bost (R-IL-12) led a bipartisan letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano urging them to immediately address unfairly traded solar products in the United States originating from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and to prevent fraudulent claims of tax credits intended to support American solar energy manufactures.

The lawmakers warn that some companies are importing nearly finished solar cells originally from the PRC and mislabeling them to avoid paying duties that help level the playing field for American manufacturers. The group also warns that, after completing only the final finishing steps in the U.S., these companies may be fraudulently claiming tax credits intended for American producers and marketing their products as American made.

The letter explains that these imported cells, called “blue wafers,” have already undergone the key manufacturing process that makes them solar cells under longstanding U.S. trade rules. As a result, the lawmakers argue that these products should be treated as imported solar cells for customs purposes and should not qualify for the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit.

“Nearly finished solar cells made in countries currently subject to antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders are being purposefully misclassified as ‘wafers’ to avoid these duties,” the lawmakers state in their letter. “This duty evasion and tax fraud is harming U.S. energy manufacturers and placing them at a clear competitive disadvantage.”

Read the article.