Several Canadian solar panel companies are suing the Trump administration over the 30% tariffs the President imposed on their products last month. President Trump, last month, announced a 30% tariff on solar panels and a 50% tariff on imported washing machines.
The impetus for the move, the President said, was bringing well-paying manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. “You’re going to have people getting jobs again and we’re going to be making our own product again,” the president said at the signing event. Both tariffs decrease over time and eventually expire – the washing machine tax after three years, the solar panel tax after four years.
In their lawsuit filed in the United States Court of International Trade, the three companies said that their solar imports do not harm U.S. producers, and because of that the tariffs violate the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA.
The Canadian companies say that because of a prior conclusion by the International Trade Commission that Canadian imports aren’t harmful, the tariffs violate a NAFTA provision on trade restrictions. They claim the president did not meet the high requirements needed for imposing tariffs on NAFTA countries.
South Korean, Taiwan and the European Union have all separately filed complaints with the World Trade Organization over the solar tariffs. China has criticized them as well, calling them illegal.