Legal

Trina Solar’s first quarter (Q1) 2012 financials have been curtailed, due to provisions made for potential countervailing and anti-dumping duties. The company also missed its shipment and gross margin guidance. Despite this, it still forecasts growth for the full year (FY).

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd has seen significant first quarter (Q1) 2012 financial losses. As with Trina Solar, the company’s gross profit and gross margin have been affected by a provision for preliminary U.S. countervailing and anti-dumping duties. Looking ahead, it expects to see gross margin and shipments pickup.

In what can only be described as a “Bizarro World” scenario, even as Canada continued to take the heat last week for the domestic content requirement in Ontario’s feed-in tariff (FIT.2) scheme, legislators in Washington, DC, considered imposing a similar regulation, in order to freeze China’s manufacturers out of the U.S. solar market.

The verdict is in and China has been found guilty as charged – or more accurately, liable for undercharging on sales of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and panels in the U.S. market.

The recently-established Global Solar Council (GSC) has denied that it was set-up in response to the ongoing U.S.-Sino trade dispute, following media claims to the contrary. In related news, its executive director answers pv magazine’s questions.

Just how important is “home advantage” to players in the renewable energy sector? It could be a game changer, according to Japan and the European Union, both of which have brought complaints against Canada for violating the rules of fair competition.

The Canadian province of Ontario had its say this week in Geneva at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) hearing.

Capitalism prevailed over party politics this week, as the U.S. Congress moved swiftly to pass legislation that would enable the Department of Commerce to continue applying countervailing duty (CVD) law to non-market economies (NMEs), such as China and Vietnam.

This week, the waiting game continued for U.S. and Chinese solar industry leaders. Citing the “extraordinarily complicated” nature of its investigation, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) again postponed the date for its preliminary determination in the countervailing duty (CVD) petition brought by SolarWorld against China’s manufacturers of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules.

The controversy surrounding the U.S.-China trade debate looks set to continue well into 2012. Having already twice delayed the deadline for its preliminary decision on Chinese solar import duties into the U.S., the Department of Commerce has now introduced a “critical-circumstances” ruling, meaning that retroactive duties could be applied.