President Biden has issued a proclamation expanding the amount of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not partially or fully assembled into other products, that may enter the U.S. duty-free under a tariff-rate quota established as part of a Section 201 safeguard on such imports. That safeguard is currently scheduled to remain in effect through Feb. 4, 2026.
This proclamation increases from 5.0 to 12.5 gigawatts the total production capacity of solar cells that may be entered at the in-quota duty rate per year. Last fall a majority of the representatives of the domestic industry asked the president to either eliminate the TRQ and provide for tariff-free treatment of all imports of CSPV cells (which are used to manufacture solar panels in the U.S.) or increase the TRQ from 5 GW to 20 GW. The petitioners asserted that expected domestic module production, coupled with current lack of sufficient domestic cell production, will require domestic module producers to rely on imports in the near term in excess of the 5 GW in-quota amount.
The TRQ increase is effective with respect to goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after 12:01 am EDT on Aug. 1.
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