Tim Brightbill Comments on Massive Chinese Subsidies Harming the U.S. Solar Industry

Tim Brightbill, a partner in Wiley Rein's International Trade Practice, was quoted by The Washington Post in a column by Harold Meyerson on trade tensions between the U.S. and China, particularly in the green energy industry, and its impact on manufacturing jobs in the United Sates.

Wiley Rein is representing a group of  U.S. businesses from the wind and solar industries that are working to expand domestic green technology use and employment, and to address the problem of dumped and subsidized Chinese imports harming these U.S. industries. Alan Price is leading the wind tower case and Mr. Brightbill is overseeing the solar case now pending before the Department of Commerce.

Mr. Meyerson noted “China’s massive state subsidies to solar and wind power companies, which manufacture almost entirely for export.”  Mr. Brightbill stated that Chinese subsidies to their solar industry may reach $40 billion.

Mr. Meyerson goes on to write that “So far, U.S. manufacturers and unions that suspect foreign countries of violating trade laws have had to investigate such practices themselves: No agency of government has been empowered to initiate legal actions against trade law miscreants, which speaks volumes about the unquestioning faith that our elites have had in the blessings of free trade and the benefits of corporate offshoring.”