TRADE DEALS/WTO: “The Trump administration was handed fresh ammunition in its quest to ramp up ‘America First’ trade enforcement policies on Friday [9-22-17] as a government commission backed a bid from U.S. solar-panel makers to win protection from imports.
The International Trade Commission voted 4-0 to approve a request from the domestic solar-panel industry seeking relief under a little-used trade law that allows American companies to win government protection if they can show they suffered ‘serious injury’ from a surge in imports.
The ITC members will next consider what specific policies they believe should be implemented. That recommendation will be sent in November to the White House, which would then be required to make a decision by early next year on whether to impose import limits.
The significance of the case goes beyond the distressed solar-panel sector as a signal of whether the White House will carry out vows to revive unilateral trade enforcement powers recent administrations had shelved in deference to global arbiters…
The solar industry had requested protection under the long-dormant Section 201 of the 1974 trade law. Friday’s vote was the first time the ITC had weighed such a petition since 2001. In that case, officials approved a request for relief from the steel industry, and the George W. Bush administration imposed tariffs the following year. Those were eventually removed after the World Trade Organization concluded the protections violated global trading rules.”
-Jacob M. Schlesinger and Erin Ailworth, “Government Commission Backs Import Protection for U.S. Solar-Panel Industry,” The Wall Street Journal online, Sept. 22, 2017 12:57pm