US probes India’s Waaree Energies for possible evasion of solar tariffs

U.S. customs officials said on Thursday they were investigating whether Indian solar company Waaree Energies sidestepped U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made cells and panels by labeling them as made in India.

Waaree has co-operated with the U.S. investigations in the past and will continue to co-operate in ongoing investigation, it said in an exchange filing on Friday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed the probe in a memo to attorneys for Waaree and the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, a coalition of domestic solar manufacturers that requested the investigation in letters to the agency earlier this year.

In the memo, the agency said there was reasonable suspicion that Waaree had failed to label some of its imported products as subject to antidumping and countervailing duties the United States has imposed for years on solar cells and panels made in China and other Asian nations.

It said it was taking steps to protect U.S. revenues, such as requiring cash deposits from the company while the investigation is ongoing.

U.S. imports of solar panels from India have surged in the last two years since the Commerce Department imposed tariffs on goods from four Southeast Asian nations that had made up the bulk of the nation’s panel supplies. The United States has imposed tariffs on Chinese-made panels for more than a decade.

The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which includes solar companies Qcells, a division of Korea’s Hanwha Corp and First Solar applauded the probe.

“Indian solar products have been among the lowest prices in the market, and now we know why that’s possible: by using Chinese cells and not paying the duties that apply to them,” Tim Brightbill, the group’s attorney, said in a statement.

The Alliance earlier this year also asked the Commerce Department to impose antidumping and countervailing tariffs on cells and panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos.

Waaree’s shares fell 7.3% in Mumbai on Friday, their sharpest intraday fall in over four months.