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Complaint could deal new blow to multi-billion-dollar

trade

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US officials to decide on duties, retroactive measures

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Vietnam is top supplier of solar panels, faces heavy

duties

(Updates Aug. 15 story with graphic, trade data from paragraph

12)

By Nichola Groom and Francesco Guarascio

Aug 15 (Reuters) - A group of U.S. solar panel makers

asked the Commerce Department on Thursday to consider imposing

duties retroactively on Vietnam and Thailand due to a surge in

imports, as those countries face probes for alleged unfair

practices in the multi-billion-dollar trade.

In May, the Commerce Department started investigations over

silicon solar cells and panels made in Vietnam, Thailand,

Malaysia and Cambodia. A group of domestic manufacturers alleges

the products were sold in the U.S. at excessively low prices and

benefited from subsidies from China, home to many manufacturers

with factories in the region.

The four Southeast Asian countries accounted for nearly 80%

of U.S. imports last year in dollar terms, according to U.S.

trade data reviewed by Reuters.

U.S. President Joe Biden has pledged to revitalize American

manufacturing by providing incentives for domestic production of

goods to help fight climate change, including solar panels and

electric-vehicle batteries that are mainly made in China. Some

in the small U.S. solar-manufacturing sector say the industry is

struggling to compete with low-priced imports.

As speculation about the trade probes began circulating this

year, exports from Vietnam and Thailand surged, the American

Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee said in a

complaint filed with Commerce, which followed its earlier

petition in April to start the trade investigations. The group

represents domestic producers including Hanwha Qcells

and First Solar ( FSLR ).

That investigation could lead to high tariffs from as early

as July, if U.S. federal officials confirm unfair trading

practices in preliminary determinations scheduled in early

October, and uphold retroactive duties applicable 90 days before

their decisions.

The trade ministries of Vietnam and Thailand did not reply

to requests for comment.

The new tariffs could be particularly harmful to Vietnam,

which risks the highest duties as it is deemed by the United

States a non-market economy. That status usually leads to

harsher sanctions because domestic pricing is not considered

reliable, according to trade experts.

Vietnam's estimated gap between domestic and export prices,

known as dumping margins, were estimated by the U.S. at over

270% using Indonesia as benchmark, more than three times higher

than Thailand's. Larger margins are likely to result in higher

tariffs, if approved, experts said.

In their latest complaint, the U.S. manufacturers said the

volume of solar imports from Vietnam and Thailand rose 39% and

17% respectively in the second quarter compared with the first

quarter, as the two countries allegedly increased shipments to

the United States ahead of potential duties.

Such moves could be considered "critical circumstances,"

U.S. producers said. Both the Commerce Department and the

International Trade Commission must find that critical

circumstances exist for duties to be imposed retroactively.

In dollar terms, sales from Vietnam to the U.S. surged in

recent months.

U.S. trade data shows that in April, imports rose to a

record high of more than $680 million - over half the total for

that month - and remained far above monthly averages in May and

June. At the same time, exports in dollar terms from Thailand,

Malaysia and Cambodia have slowed, the data showed.

In the first six months of the year, Vietnam supplied the

U.S. with solar panels and modules worth $3.3 billion, equal to

45% of all U.S. imports, up from less than 30% last year when

full-year Vietnamese exports to the U.S. amounted to $4 billion.