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Major US Solar Company Blames Job Cuts On Trump's Solar Import Tariff

posted by martyb on Thursday March 01 2018, @07:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the downward-economic-spiral dept.

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on imported solar materials is already taking its toll on U.S. jobs.

After putting plans on hold last month to expand its factories in the United States, SunPower Corp., one of the nation's largest solar panel manufacturers, now intends to lay off about 10 percent of its U.S. workforce.

SunPower attributed the job cuts to the 30-percent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported solar cells and panels, The Hill reported [February 28]. Company chief executive Tom Werner estimates the new tariffs will cause the company to lose $50 million in 2018 and as much as $100 million in 2019.

Werner's comments built on information that SunPower released in a filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. The news also came only two weeks after SunPower reported a 35-percent decrease in revenue in 2017 compared to 2016.

Werner told The Hill that it has already begun laying off between 150 and 250 workers from its U.S. operations. Based in San Jose, California, SunPower imports most of its components from manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and Mexico.

Trump slapped the 30-percent tariff on imported solar cells and panels in January after the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that China had harmed the domestic solar manufacturing industry with policies aimed at taking over the global market. The industry gets about 80 percent of its solar panel products from imports.

The Solar Energy Industries Association, the primary lobby group for the U.S. industry, estimates Trump's decision may cost the fast-growing industry about 23,000 jobs in 2018 and cause billions of dollars in solar investments to be canceled or delayed. The industry currently employees more than 260,000 people, primarily in the installation business.

[...] In January, SunPower said it was putting a $20 million U.S. factory expansion and hundreds of new jobs on hold until its solar panels receive an exemption from Trump's solar tariffs.

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:36AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 02 2018, @12:36AM (#646120)

    I was too young to understand whether it was workers, unions, management. But I was old enough to understand to not buy American cars, and I've had good luck by not doing so.

    And not just cars either, as this old saw rather humorously points out [ambians.com]:

    Mr. Jones related an incident from "some time back" when IBM Canada
    Ltd. of Markham, Ont., ordered some parts from a new supplier in Japan. The
    company noted in its order that acceptable quality allowed for 1.5 per cent
    defects (a fairly high standard in North America at the time).
                    The Japanese sent the order, with a few parts packaged separately in
    plastic. The accompanying letter said: "We don't know why you want 1.5 per
    cent defective parts, but for your convenience, we've packed them separately."
                                    -- Excerpted from an article in The (Toronto) Globe and Mail

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