A coalition of U.S. solar manufacturers has asked federal trade officials to investigate solar panel imports from Ethiopia, alleging that Chinese-linked companies are using the African country to bypass existing U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made solar products.
The petition, filed Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Commerce, marks the latest effort by domestic manufacturers to crack down on what they describe as unfair trade practices undermining the American solar industry.
The complaint alleges that Japanese-owned Toyo and Origin Solar Manufacturing are importing Chinese-made wafers into Ethiopia, where they are turned into solar cells and assembled into panels before being exported to the United States either directly or through Vietnam.
Under U.S. trade law, companies are prohibited from circumventing tariffs by routing goods through third countries while making only limited processing changes.
The petition was backed by major U.S.-based manufacturers, including Arizona-based First Solar and Qcells, the solar manufacturing division of South Korea’s Hanwha Group, alongside six smaller producers. Both companies have invested heavily in expanding domestic solar manufacturing capacity in the United States.
Ethiopia has rapidly emerged as a new hub for solar manufacturing exports. The United States imported no solar products from Ethiopia before mid-2025, but imports surged to around $300 million by the end of last year, making the country the seventh-largest supplier of solar products to the U.S.
“What we’re seeing in Ethiopia follows a familiar playbook,” said Tim Brightbill, lead attorney for the petitioning group and a partner at Wiley Rein.
“American solar manufacturing is at an inflection point: With billions invested, thousands of jobs created, real capacity coming online, we are not going to let serial tariff evasion undercut that progress,” he added.
The U.S. has maintained anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese-made solar products for more than a decade after investigations concluded that Chinese manufacturers benefited from unfair state subsidies. Similar tariffs were later extended to products originating from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, where many Chinese firms relocated production.