US solar companies weigh challenge to Biden pause on tariffs

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. solar manufacturers say they are considering legal challenges after President Joe Biden declared a two-year pause for tariffs on solar imports from Southeast Asia.

Biden also invoked the Defense Production Act on Monday as the White House moved to jumpstart solar installations that have been slowed or abandoned amid a Commerce Department inquiry into possible trade violations involving Chinese products.

The White House said Biden's actions would boost an industry crucial to his climate change-fighting goals while not interfering with or shutting down the Commerce investigation.

But some domestic producers, including a California company that filed a complaint with Commerce about unfair competition from Chinese imports, said Biden's actions would help China’s state-subsidized solar companies at the expense of U.S. manufacturers.

"President Biden is significantly interfering in Commerce’s quasi-judicial process,'' said Mamun Rashid, CEO of Auxin Solar, which filed the complain with Commerce earlier this year.

"By taking this unprecedented – and potentially illegal – action, (Biden) has opened the door wide for Chinese-funded special interests to defeat the fair application of U.S. trade law,'' Rashid said in a statement.

Auxin was not consulted before the White House announcement, Rashid said, nor did the White House contact other U.S. producers. Auxin is currently "evaluating all of our legal options,'' he said.

Timothy Brightbill, a lawyer who represents domestic solar manufacturers, said Tuesday that Biden was using the pretext of declaring a national emergency to negate an ongoing trade investigation.

“That is unprecedented, it is bad law and it is extremely bad, short-sighted policy, because it only makes us more dependent on Chinese-owned...