Office of the United States Trade Representative April 17, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On January 23, 2018, the President imposed a safeguard measure on imports of certain solar products pursuant to a Section 201 investigation. On February 14, 2018, the U.S. Trade Representative established procedures for interested persons to request product- specific exclusions from application of the safeguard measure and to comment on the submitted requests. Based on the requests and comments received, the U.S. Trade Representative granted certain requests on June 13, 2019, including a request to exclude from the safeguard measure bifacial solar panels that consist only of bifacial solar cells. On January 27, 2020, the U.S. Trade Representative established procedures to consider whether to maintain, withdraw, or take some other action with respect to the exclusion of bifacial solar panels from the safeguard measure. Based on an evaluation of the comments received, and responses to those comments, and in consultation with the Secretaries of Commerce and Energy, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined that the bifacial solar panel exclusion is undermining the objectives of the safeguard measure. Accordingly, the U.S. Trade Representative will request that the U.S. Court of International Trade lift the order preliminarily enjoining the withdrawal from entering into effect.