Trump imposes steep tariffs on imported solar panels, washing machines

(Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 23 January 2018

President Trump on Monday, acting on recommendations by the U.S. International Trade Commission, approved steep new tariffs on solar panels and washing machines.

The Trump administration says that by placing a tariff of 30 percent on most imported solar modules and a tariff of up to 50 percent on large residential washing machines, this will help American companies. Both tariffs will be phased out by 2022.

Whirlpool is pleased with the news, with its chairman saying it will create manufacturing jobs, but Bill Vietas, a member of the Solar Energy Industries Association and president of RBI Solar in Cincinnati, said the tariffs will hurt his industry, which has grown immensely over the past five years. "Government tariffs will increase the cost of solar and depress demand, which will reduce the orders we're getting and cost manufacturing workers their jobs," he told The Associated Press.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.