The U.S. just made a huge mistake in its solar panel fight with China

This is the wrong trade war at the wrong time

Solar panels
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Xinhua, Liang Xiaopeng))

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that an internal investigation had concluded that solar panel components imported from China were being subsidized so heavily that American competitors are being damaged.

The Commerce Department has now hiked import tariffs on solar cells to between 18.56 percent and 35.21 percent depending on the manufacturer, and expanded them to cover fully assembled solar panels. The original round of tariffs on Chinese solar imports introduced in March 2012 initially covered only solar cells.

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John Aziz is the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate editor at Pieria.co.uk. Previously his work has appeared on Business Insider, Zero Hedge, and Noahpinion.