A group of U.S. solar companies is calling on the Biden administration to crack down on imported solar technology from Southeast Asia. 

In a petition filed by the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee on April 24, the coalition of seven companies voiced concerns over Chinese-owned manufacturers routing their solar cells through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam to bypass tariffs on imports, flooding the market with products well below market value. That has U.S. manufacturers calling for tariffs ranging between 70% and 271% on solar panels coming from those four Southeast Asian countries. 

The group claims that Chinese imports from Southeast Asia have collapsed prices for solar panels and cells by more than 50%. This also comes as the Biden administration has voiced similar concerns over China's surplus of cheap green energy technology driving down prices for American manufacturers. In early April, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she wasn't ruling out the possibility of new tariffs on Chinese green energy imports.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) confirmed that five Chinese companies were circumventing duties on solar products by moving them through Southeast Asia for "minor processing." At the time, the DOC decided to pause tariffs on solar imports from those countries for the next two years to give the five companies time to adjust their supply chains.