When the Obama administration, back in March, slapped tariffs on Chinese solar panels, I wrote about it here. Now the Obama administration has reportedly imposed even larger tariffs, as much as 250%. The same observation applies: "If the American government is worried about Chinese government-backed companies undercutting American companies in manufacturing, taxing American consumers seems like a bit of a self-defeating way of approaching the problem. An alternative approach might be to to support free labor unions in China and political change there that would reduce government involvement in the economy."
And, as Nathan Myhrvold has said, "If the charges are true, think about where those cheap solar panels end up: Many of them are being sold to utilities in the U.S., which are building solar-power plants that are themselves subsidized by the U.S. government. So at worst, the net effect is that the Chinese government is helping American taxpayers get more power plants for their money. Why is that such a bad thing?"
