Florida Senator Rick Scott is calling on Democratic President Joe Biden to fix “his illogical carve out” for Chinese solar.
Senator Scott released a statement following U.S. solar manufacturers’ move to file a trade petition for investigations and anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imported solar from southeast Asian nations, primarily by companies based in China.
The move from the Republican Senator comes amid reports that companies are forced to rethink their plans to invest in American-based solar factories and calls from several U.S. solar companies for the Biden administration to finally hold Communist Chinese solar companies accountable for circumventing U.S. trade laws by sending Chinese-made solar products – panels and components – through Southeast Asian countries, claiming they were made in the corresponding nation.
Last year, Senator Scott and Congressman Bill Posey led and passed legislation that utilized the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to rescind the Commerce Department rule that allowed Chinese solar manufacturers to circumvent U.S. tariffs by delivering their products to the U.S. through third-party countries, all to the detriment of American companies and workers. President Biden vetoed the legislation.
“Last year, I led and Congress passed an Anti-Chinese Solar CRA, giving President Biden the opportunity to reverse his illogical pro-China rule that supports horrific slavery, child labor, and illegal business practices propped up by the Chinese Communist Party,” Republican Senator Rick Scott said. “Instead of standing against child labor and slavery, and supporting American-made solar manufacturers by signing my CRA, Biden chose cowardly appeasement of the genocidal regime in Communist China and vetoed it.
“American and allied nation businesses have been left struggling to fight for a level playing field ever since Biden put his thumb on the scale in favor of illegal trade activities,” he continued. “After two years of allowing Communist Chinese companies to benefit off Biden’s weakness, the president has the opportunity to finally do the right thing and hold these companies accountable. This would be the right move, and if Biden wants to leave the American people better off when he leaves office than they are today, he’d reverse the rest of the terrible policies he’s used to destroy our economy and undermine the national security of the United States.”
