US-China solar trade war ! new developments

Solar server: The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) announced that more than 75 U.S. employers have registered their support for anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases filed against the nation of China, by joining the coalition as associate members. The U.S. steelworkers union has also registered its support for the cases.

Solar industry: The Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), which the group says initially represents 25 organizations and more than 9,200 jobs in the U.S. solar sector, has formally launched. CASE was formed in response to the October anti-dumping complaint and countervailing-duty petition filed by SolarWorld and its partners in the Coalition for Solar Manufacturing (CASM). According to CASE, this trade case poses a threat to the entire U.S. solar market.

Greentech media: Jigar Shah, CEO of Carbon War Room and founder of SunEdison, said in a CASE press release that "Despite the remarkable progress, the U.S. still represents only 5 percent to 10 percent of the global solar marketplace. Placing protectionist barriers against more efficient and affordable solar cells -- whatever their origin -- discourages innovation and investment. Now is the time to move forward, not backward, on our clean energy goals. We must not walk away from one of the greatest opportunities of the 21st century. [Furthermore,] more than half the solar employment picture [in the US] is in the installation and downstream portion of the value chain -- not in cell or module manufacturing."
[The other side claims] Gordon Brinser, the President of SolarWorld Industries America (headquartered in Hillsboro, Oregon): "China is cheating on global trade rules." Brinser also said that "China’s state-sponsored solar industry is receiving massive illegal subsidies and is illegally dumping crystalline silicon solar products into the U.S. market." Brinser continues, "China’s illegal actions are undercutting fair market value and threatening to eliminate America’s solar manufacturing. [...] As long as China is allowed to continue cheating, there is no way America can expect to compete in the solar energy race."

China Times: Cao Huabin of CECEP Solar Energy Technology [a unit of the state-run giant China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group] said that his company has put a planned US$500 million US project on hold amid uncertainty over US anti-dumping policy. "If the solar panel prices increase by, say 30%, in the United States, following the move, then we would certainly drop the plan because there's no profit to be made," Cao said.