End of Bifacial Panel Exclusion Coming in Five Days

The official proclamation implementing an announcement in mid-May on changes to the 14.25% tariffs on imported solar panels and the tariff rate quotas on imported cells was issued by the White House on June 21.

Bifacial solar panels that enter commerce on or after June 26, at 12:01 a.m. EDT, will be subject to the tariffs, unless the buyer signed the contract on May 16 or earlier. In that case, the panels may be imported up to 90 days from today, as long as the terms of the contract didn't change. Those panels should be entered under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9903.45.29, and the importer will need to fill out a certification from the second annex to the proclamation, and upload it into ACE. CBP may ask for the contract to verify the imports' eligibility for avoiding the safeguard tariff.

There is no domestic production of this kind of solar panel, which has the ability to absorb light on both sides. However, since these were the only imported panels that weren't subject to Section 201 tariffs, bifacial panels were imported in larger numbers, and they were put into applications where they weren't designed to go, such as on residential rooftops. According to an International Trade Commission assessment of the safeguard tariffs (see 2402080061), from January to June 2023, 11.9 million bifacial modules were imported, and only 1.7 million non-bifacial modules were imported.

The annexes to the proclamation have not yet been published.