Rep. Stearns looks to probe China’s solar trade practices

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) said Tuesday he hopes to launch an investigation into Chinese trade practices, citing a petition by a handful of solar companies aimed at pressuring the Obama administration to impose duties on the country’s solar imports.

“When countries are taking advantage of our free and open society, we need to react,” Stearns said Tuesday during a C-SPAN interview.

Stearns, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s investigative panel, said the United States should “take action” if the investigation finds that China is engaging in practices that violate international trade rules.

{mosads}“I think we should have an investigation. I think we should have a hearing on this and I think we should establish in the American people’s mind that China is doing this on a regular basis across the board,” Stearns said. “I think we need to react and I think we need to say to China, if you continue to do this, we’re going to do something.”

Stearns’s call for an investigation comes a week after SolarWorld Industries America, a solar panel manufacturer, filed petitions with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission alleging that China is illegally subsidizing its solar industry.

The company alleges that China is flooding the U.S. market with underpriced solar panels and subsidizing its solar industry in violation of World Trade Organization rules. China’s efforts, the company says, are burdening U.S. solar manufacturers and are partly responsible for seven U.S. companies going out of business or downsizing in the last year.

The petition, which has won the support of six other anonymous solar manufacturers, calls on the U.S. government to impose duties on Chinese imports if it determines that the country is engaged in unfair trade practices.

The petition has caused a backlash in parts of the solar industry, with several companies raising concerns that the effort will hurt some solar companies by raising the cost of panels.

Stearns is conducting a separate investigation into the $535 million loan guarantee to Solyndra, a California solar panel maker that filed for bankruptcy in early September.