U.S. slaps 126% obligation on Indian photo voltaic imports

The Trump administration has imposed duties of 126% on imports of photo voltaic cells from India following a “preliminary” dedication that subsidised exports from Indian corporations had been hurting the competitiveness of American photo voltaic corporations and contravened World Trade Organization agreements on subsidies.

These tariffs had been collectively imposed on February 24 on India, Indonesia and Laos following an investigation that started on August 7, 2025 by the U.S. Department of Commerce following a July 7, 2025 criticism by the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade (AASMT), a coalition of main photo voltaic producers.

The Indian corporations underneath the U.S. Commerce Ministry’s radar included Mundra Solar Energy Pvt. Ltd. and Mundra Solar PV Ltd. – each a part of the Adani Group- Premier Energies Photovoltaic Private Limited (Premier) and Waaree Energies Ltd. and Waaree Solar Americas.

Beyond India, the division set preliminary charges starting from 86% to 143% for Indonesia and 81% for Laos.

This newest U.S. levy comes after New Delhi and Washington agreed on a framework for the India-U.S. commerce deal to deliver down tariffs on India’s exports to 18% from 50% earlier. After this, the U.S. Supreme Court quashed Trump tariffs, calling them unconstitutional. President Trump then got here up with a brand new 10% baseline obligation on a number of imports.

On February 24, per a discover on the U.S. Commerce Ministry website, it was the Adani corporations that had been particularly named with an obligation charges of 125.87% although these charges, as of now, apply to all Indian exporters.

The Hindu didn’t obtain feedback from these corporations as of press time. However, on condition that the United States is the largest export vacation spot for photo voltaic elements, Indian exports may probably be “impacted.” The implications of the order had been nonetheless being studied, a spokesperson for Solex Energy Limited, a Surat-based photo voltaic producer instructed The Hindu. “There will be an impact as the U.S. is a major export destination. How much still needs to be determined. Some months sees a surge in exports and less in others, so it could well be that we won’t see an impact beyond the immediate quarter,” the individual defined.

Currently duties upto 40% are imposed on such export of photo voltaic cells. 

The duties that had been imposed are further to present tariffs levied by the Trump administration. The last dedication in these CVD investigations are at present scheduled to be issued on July 6, 2026. The Commerce division can also be conducting concurrent antidumping obligation (AD) investigations of photo voltaic cells from India, Indonesia, and Laos.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) mentioned it was additionally conducting a concurrent harm investigation. 

According to public paperwork on the U.S. commerce web site, perused by The Hindu, the  petitioner (AASMT) alleged that “..imports of subject merchandise from India have increased more than 15% over a relatively short period to be considered ‘massive.’”

On September 5, 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department “preliminary determined” that there’s a “reasonable indication” that an business within the United States is “materially injured” by “reason of imports of solar cells from India.”

A doc additionally famous that “..Commerce (U.S. Commerce Department) is preliminarily applying adverse facts available (AFA) to Mundra Solar Energy and Mundra Solar PV because they failed to cooperate in this proceeding.”

According to information cited by U.S. authorities, Indian corporations in 2022 exported 232 mega watts (MW) price of photo voltaic cells which rose to 2049 MW in 2023 and a pair of,297 MW in 2024. In 2022-23 – $1,000 million price of photovoltaics had been exported and that elevated to $1,939.92 million in 2023-24 and right down to $954 million in April-December 2025.