By: Rob Lobster

Rob Lobster — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 14:09:39 +0000

As the United States reassesses its shrinking manufacturing base relative to China’s expanding influence and considers the global geopolitical landscape, it might want to think about the ramifications of using sanctions and tariffs to concede leadership to the rest of the world in deploying the lowest cost industrial scale sustainable electricity infrastructure in the entire world. Supposing, by some combination of state subsidies, sanctions and trade protectionism, we manage to regain comparative advantage in our solar PV manufacturing industry — how does that advantage us if the net result is that all our other manufacturing industries are saddled with artificially inflated electrical costs relative to China, EU, and most of the BRICS, who simply take advantage of cheaper, better and more readily available Chinese (and Chinese-affiliated, I guess) panels to drop their electricity costs faster than we can accomplish for ourselves? What does it mean to launch trade actions against countries like Vietnam that we’re supposed to be courting to help us prevent China from surpassing us as an economic, technological and military force in the western Pacific?

Comments on: Solar panel import tariffs are affecting the industry by increasing prices by up to 286%

By: Rob Lobster