The U.S. Slaps Taxes on Wind Towers from China

Anti-dumping tariffs such as those sought in the wind towers and solar-panel cases are applied when a flood of artificially cheap imports is found to have hurt manufacturers in the importing country.

Another challenge facing the US wind-turbine industry is the potential expiration at the end of 2012 of the American Renewable Energy Production Tax Credit Extension Act, which benefits US clean-energy industries.

Chinese government officials have argued that some US clean-energy initiatives violated free-trade rules limiting government support.

US President Barack Obama, visiting a wind-power factory in Iowa last week, said that continuing the production tax credits would preserve about 37,000 clean-energy jobs that would otherwise be at risk.

In 2011, the US imported an estimated $222 million of wind-turbine towers from China and Vietnam, where many Chinese manufacturers in the industry operate, the Commerce Department said.

That was more than a quarter of the US market in 2011 and double the share the two countries had the previous year.

The department said it will announce a final decision on this case in August. If it affirms the preliminary findings and the ITC separately determines that the subsidies have injured US companies, the tariffs could be final by October.