Solar Tariffs Essay

The article discusses the imposition of steep tariffs on foreign washing machines and solar products entering the United States economy resulting from requests for trade barriers to protect domestic manufacturers. Tariffs, a tax charged on imported goods, are a form of protectionism often imposed as an anti-dumping measure that leads to higher prices for consumers and deadweight loss of welfare. The Trump administration approved solar tariffs for the next four years, starting with levies of 30% that will ultimately fall to 15%. In each of the four years, the first 2.5 GW of imported solar cells will be exempted from the tariff to support solar module manufacturers. The imposition of the tariff on imports, goods and services bought from foreign producers, are in response to foreign practices of dumping in which foreign producers sell solar products at prices lower than production costs in the United States to drive out the competition and create a monopoly where the foreign importer can dictate price and quality of the product. The tariffs

Although the tariff will protect domestic solar cell manufacturers by limiting the quantity on imported solar cells, the tariff will restrict growth and development in a larger sector of the solar industry, solar product development. Within the United States' solar industry, most of the jobs and money lie in "assembling panels into arrays and installing them for large corporate or industrial-scale clients." Since 2010, the solar industry has rapidly grown due to low prices and innovations in imported solar cells, but tariffs imposed on imported solar cells will stagnate the growth and lead to a decline in the industry. Creating limited access to cheap solar cells, the tariff will hike developers' costs, kill projects and make it harder to compete with wind and natural