President Trump’s top trade and manufacturing adviser called the White House’s solar tariffs “wildly successful,” despite a loophole that threatens hundreds of U.S. jobs.
Failure to rescind a Section 201 tariff exemption on bifacial, or two-sided, solar panels led to a flood of imports, undercutting U.S. manufacturers, sources say. “Hundreds of U.S. jobs are at stake,” an administration source told the Washington Examiner in July.
Advocates of Trump’s America First trade agenda say the exemption could cost many more.
A meeting at the White House to discuss the loophole in July included the deputy director of the National Economic Council, the head of policy for the office of Vice President Mike Pence, an assistant secretary from the Department of Commerce, and senior officials from the National Security Council and from Navarro’s office. But a no-show from the office of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer left the participants feeling “defeated.”
Publicly, Navarro has called for the exemption “to be slammed shut.”
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Navarro criticized Obama-era measures that he said vastly increased solar panel and module imports into the country, driving down the price.
Between 2012 and 2016, “we lost 25 U.S. solar panel and module manufacturers to this Chinese predation,” he said.
Trump’s tariffs on $8.5 billion dollars worth of solar panel imports created 2,500 new jobs across eight factories and saved 1,750 jobs across five factories, he said.
Navarro’s office and the White House press office did not respond Friday to questions regarding the status of the exemption.
Trump’s tariffs pushed China to sign a phase one trade deal in January, “and at least they appear to be making historic purchases of corn, soybeans, pork, beef, and chicken,” Navarro said on the call. “The solar and washing machine tariffs are likewise wildly successful.”
Navarro singled out the North American Free Trade Agreement as one “shock” that devastated the “manufacturing heartland of America, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and beyond.”
“It’s been a cornerstone of Trump’s economic plan to fix this broken system,” Navarro said, calling Trump’s achievements “truly remarkable by any measure.”
