Bloomberg News reported on May 4 that the US Senate passed the resolution to remove the tariff exemption by a vote of 56 to 41, with nine Democrats joining Republicans in voting for it. If the resolution is ultimately passed by the White House, tariffs on camping solar panels imported from Southeast Asia could reach as high as 254 percent. Currently, tariffs on all imports affected are in the low double digits.

The House of Representatives passed the resolution 221-202 on Saturday, with 12 Democrats joining most Republicans in voting for it.

The next step is for the resolution to go to President Joe Biden, who has so far said he will firmly veto it and keep the tariff exemptions in place until early June 2024.

It is worth noting that a two-thirds majority is needed in both houses of Congress to override the veto, a high threshold that has not been met so far in either chamber.

Last June, the White House announced a two-year exemption from tariffs on solar panels from the four Southeast Asian countries -- Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam -- and photovoltaic is a key step toward meeting its climate goals.

While tax incentives have spurred investment in U.S. solar manufacturing, it will take months or years for new domestic production to come online. Meanwhile, the United States still relies on foreign suppliers to buy most of its photovoltaic equipment. Four Southeast Asian countries now account for about 80 percent of the U.S. solar panel supply, according to the data. Lawmakers who support reinstating the tariffs argue that the United States is too dependent on other countries for clean energy.

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, U.S. solar developers could face retroactive tariffs totaling $1 billion if the two-year exemption is removed, and the bill could also eliminate 30,000 jobs and $4.2 billion in investment.

Data show that in 2022, the newly installed PV capacity in the United States is about 24GW, and this data is expected to reach about 38GW in 2023, accounting for 9.6% and 10.3% of the global newly installed PV capacity respectively.

In addition, for the impact of this event, market participants said that it takes time to establish the local industry chain in the United States, the tariff risk will cause supply and demand tension, high prices, is not in line with the interests of American solar energy; In the short term, the domestic head component enterprises all have a certain distribution of silicon wafer production capacity in Southeast Asia, and are in production or about to be put into production. At present, it is basically believed that the reprocessing of silicon wafers produced in Southeast Asia into battery modules will not constitute anti-evasion; In the medium to long term, some domestic companies have proposed to bring component capacity into production in the United States, with less internationalized component companies more exposed to tariff risks in Southeast Asia.