US trade duties will have a greater impact on American solar jobs and US-based customers than it will on JinkoSolar, the company's chairman has said.
Last week the department of commerce announced anti-subsidy duties on certain Chinese products of as much as 35.21%.
"We are disappointed to see the DOC's preliminary decision and believe that this will have a negative impact on the solar industry and will ultimately end up hurting US customers and US solar jobs the most," said Xiande Li, chairman, JinkoSolar.
"While we respect the DOC's decision, we strongly disagree with it. With a balanced and geographically diverse customer base, the tariffs are unlikely to have a significant impact on our entire business," added Li.
"Ill-conceived trade barriers such as these only aid in reducing the competitiveness of solar energy against other forms of power generation. JinkoSolar has fully cooperated with the relevant authorities throughout the investigation and will continue to do so in the hope that international trade and fair competition will eventually prevail," he said.
The latest case centres around the use of cells and other components manufactured outside China being used to circumvent existing US duties on Chinese modules. The full extent of the case's coverage of such outsourcing, is yet to be determined. The petitioner, Solarworld Americas, believes the use of overseas components amounts to a loophole in existing trade rules.