Suniva Initiates Global Safeguards Petition

Suniva, Inc., recently filed a petition for global safeguards under Section 201-202 of the Trade Act of 1974, designed to protect American jobs in the rapidly deteriorating U.S. solar manufacturing industry.This action comes as U.S. solar manufacturers face serious injury from the ongoing and increasing influx of foreign imports, which continue to drive down domestic prices. Since 2013, when the U.S. Government instituted anti-dumping and countervailing duties against manufacturers in certain countries, manufacturing has expanded to other countries, particularly in Asia, and increasing imports fueled by a growing global manufacturing overcapacity have caused U.S. market prices to fall to levels that challenge responsible economic operations for U.S. manufacturers. The resulting faltering economics have led to dramatic job losses throughout the manufacturing industry, impacting workers in multiple companies over the last 12 months.

“The modern wave of solar technology was born from research in U.S. universities, industry and government, and U.S. manufacturers led the way in the commercialization of these technologies – and yet today, we stand fighting for the survival of jobs in an industry that the U.S. created,” said Matt Card, Suniva’s Executive Vice President of Commercial Operations. “Without today’s requested global safeguard, the U.S. solar manufacturing industry will die and we will not only lose solar manufacturing jobs today, but also those future jobs that will come from investing in the solar manufacturing industry of tomorrow.”