The Commerce Department is finalizing a two-year waiver from antidumping and countervailing (AD/CV) duties for solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam that are subject to ongoing anticircumvention inquiries.

Commerce is currently conducting circumvention inquiries to determine whether imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, which are completed in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, or Vietnam using parts and components manufactured in China and exported to the United States, are circumventing the AD and CVD orders on solar cells and modules from China.

The agency’s Sept. 16 final rule mandates that no suspension of liquidation, cash deposit requirements, or AD/CV duty assessments will apply until June 6, 2024.  However, the grace period could be terminated earlier, and the solar cells must now be used within a certain period to qualify. The final rule is effective November 15, 2022. 

In addition, a new utilization requirement dictates Southeast Asian solar cells must not only be entered before the waiver’s “termination date,” currently scheduled for June 6, 2024, but must also be used or installed in the United States by a “utilization expiration date” that falls 180 days after the termination date. 

AD/CV duties are slated to start June 6, 2024; however, they may begin sooner if the president ends the emergency and authorization for temporary extensions of time and duty-free importation of solar cells and modules from Southeast Asia. 

Reference: Procedures Covering Suspension of Liquidation, Duties, and Estimated Duties in Accord With Presidential Proclamation 10414