Tim Brightbill Talks to E&ETV About Solar Industry Case against Chinese Manufacturers

Tim Brightbill, a partner in the International Trade Practice, appeared on E&ETV to discuss the U.S. solar industry’s filing of antidumping duty cases against Chinese manufacturers of solar cells and panels. Mr. Brightbill—who is representing SolarWorld, a solar cell manufacturer, and others in the petitions—began by explaining how the case came about. “U.S. industry, making solar cells and modules, has been extremely injured by reason of these Chinese imports. Over the last two years, we’ve seen imports up more than 300 percent from China, we’ve seen prices on solar technology drop 40 percent in the last year and we’ve seen that China has really built a whole solar industry out of nothing. And they’re producing it to send it here, not for their own home market. So, after some time, SolarWorld and others just decided it’s time to stand up and it’s time to enforce our trade laws and take this step,” he said.  Elaborating on the issue, Mr. Brightbill added that “China is not only receiving these tens of billions of dollars of subsidies, but it’s using that to injure the U.S. industry. That’s illegal under U.S. law and WTO law and so that’s what we’re trying to address with these cases.”

Click here to watch a video of the interview and read the transcript.