Energy & Science

Trump’s Push to Kill Solar Loophole Blocked by Trade Court

  • American developers can continue skirting duties for now
  • Ruling a blow to companies that invested in U.S. manufacturing

    

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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The Trump administration lost another bid to kill a tariff loophole on imported solar equipment, enabling American developers to continue skirting its duties for the time being.

A U.S. trade court on Wednesday rejected the administration’s request to clear the way for removal of a tariff exemption on bifacial, or two-sided, panels. U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann said the government had yet to meet its “burden of showing sufficiently changed circumstances to justify dissolving” a preliminary injunction against the exemption’s elimination.