United States Imposes High Tariffs on Indonesian Solar Panels: What's the Reason?
Jakarta, Indonesia — Access to the United States market for Indonesian solar panels faces fresh challenges. The US Department of Commerce has formally imposed temporary countervailing duties on imports of solar cells and panels from Indonesia, India, and Laos. The policy was adopted following allegations that the solar panel industries in these three countries receive government subsidies deemed to harm American domestic producers.
This represents the latest US policy from a series of import tariffs that have been in place for more than a decade against cheap solar panel imports from Asia, largely produced by Chinese companies.
According to a fact sheet published by US trade authorities, the calculated general subsidy rates reached 125.87 percent for products from India, 104.38 percent from Indonesia, and 80.67 percent from Laos.
US government trade data shows that imports of solar panels from these three countries reached $4.5 billion last year, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of total US solar panel imports throughout 2025.
Beyond general tariffs, the US government has also imposed specific duties on several companies. From Indonesia, PT Blue Sky Solar was hit with a tariff of 143.3 percent, whilst PT REC Solar Energy faced 85.99 percent. In India, Mundra Solar faced a tariff of 125.87 percent. Meanwhile, Solarspace Technology Sole Co and Vietnam Sunergy Joint Stock Company operating in Laos were each subjected to tariffs of 80.67 percent.
This determination adds to a lengthy list of US disruptions to global solar panel trade. Previously, imports from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia also declined sharply after being subjected to high tariffs in similar cases.
The announcement is the first of two decisions expected to be released within the coming weeks in the trade case filed last year by an alliance of US solar panel producers. The US Department of Commerce is scheduled to announce a separate decision next month to determine whether companies from these three countries are selling products in the American market below their production costs (dumping).