A coalition of U.S. solar panel manufacturers filed a petition with federal trade officials on Tuesday requesting an investigation into solar products imported from Ethiopia to the United States. The manufacturers allege that companies are finishing their products in Ethiopia and shipping them to the U.S. to evade tariffs imposed on Chinese imports.
The petition, submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce, is part of a decade-long effort by domestic solar factory owners to impose tariffs or duties on cheap products primarily manufactured by Chinese companies.
The petition was filed by Arizona-based First Solar Inc., Qcells (the solar division of South Korea’s Hanwha), and six other smaller manufacturers. The petition specifically names the Japanese company Toyo and Origin Solar Manufacturing.
According to the complaint, these companies produce solar cells in Ethiopia using Chinese-made “wafers”; they then convert these cells into panels in either Ethiopia or Vietnam before exporting them to the U.S.
Under U.S. trade law, “circumvention”—the practice of routing products through other countries with minor modifications to bypass U.S. duties—is illegal. Tim Brightbill, an attorney representing the manufacturers, stated that this practice is a strategy aimed at weakening the U.S. solar manufacturing industry.
“What we are seeing in Ethiopia is a familiar pattern of trade cheating,” Brightbill said. “American solar manufacturing is at a critical stage; billions of dollars have been invested and thousands of jobs have been created, so we will not allow this growth to be hindered by continuous tariff evasion.”
Data bolstering the manufacturers’ concerns show that Ethiopia’s share of the international solar market has grown at a rapid pace. Trade records indicate that until mid-2025, the U.S. did not import any solar products from Ethiopia. However, by the end of that same year, the value of imports from Ethiopia reached $300 million.
This rapid growth has made Ethiopia the 7th largest solar product exporter to the U.S. in a short period. Domestic manufacturers believe that such a massive volume of production could only be achieved in a short timeframe by using Chinese inputs.
For the past decade, the U.S. has imposed anti-dumping duties on solar products manufactured in China. This is because the unfair subsidies provided by the Chinese government to its companies significantly lower prices, which harms U.S. manufacturers.
In recent years, the Department of Commerce has also applied these duties to Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. This followed confirmation that Chinese companies were attempting to evade tariffs by opening factories in those countries.
If the current investigation regarding Ethiopia proves successful, new duties could be imposed on products imported from Ethiopia as well.
The outcome of this investigation carries significant financial weight. First Solar and Qcells have invested billions of dollars in U.S. solar factories. These companies view low-priced imports as a major threat. The Department of Commerce is expected to review the petition and decide within the coming weeks whether to launch an official investigation.
