May 16 (UPI) — President Joe Biden vetoed a congressional resolution Tuesday that would have restored tariffs on solar panels imported from Chinese companies in Southeast Asia, saying it “bets against American innovation.”
Biden’s veto supports last year’s Commerce Department rule that suspended tariffs for solar panel products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam for 24 months. The exemption will continue as planned through June of 2024.
“Passage of this resolution bets against American innovation. It would undermine these efforts and create deep uncertainty for American businesses and workers in the solar industry,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. “Therefore, I am vetoing this resolution.”
The U.S. House and Senate approved the resolution to reinstate tariffs last month after lawmakers from both parties believed it would protect U.S. solar workers amid what they called unfair competition from China. Nine Democratic senators and 12 Democrats in the House joined Republicans to support the plan. But Biden said while private American companies are committed to building solar panels, many are not ready.
“America is now on track to increase domestic solar panel manufacturing capacity eight-fold by the end of my first term. But that production will not come online overnight,” Biden said.
“The rule implements a temporary, 24-month bridge to make sure that when these new factories are operational, we have a thriving solar installation industry ready to deploy American-made solar products to homes, businesses and communities across the nation,” Biden added, as he promised the tariff suspension would not be extended.
“Given the progress we are making on American solar, I do not intend to extend the tariff suspension at the conclusion of the 2-year period in June 2024.”
The tariffs were originally put in place by former President Donald Trump and were extended by Biden for four years in February of 2022.
The tariffs were in effect until last June, when the Biden administration suspended them for two years amid a U.S. Commerce Department investigation into whether the Southeast Asian nations sidestepped U.S. tariffs on imports of solar equipment from China.
On Tuesday, the Solar Energy Industries Association applauded the president’s veto.
“This action is reaffirmation of POTUS’ commitment to business certainty in the clean energy sector,” SEIA tweeted, “and a signal to companies to continue creating jobs, building domestic manufacturing capacity and investing in American communities.”