Imports of some solar panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, or Vietnam using components produced in China are circumventing U.S. anti-dumping regulations and tariffs put in place by the Obama administration to protect U.S. businesses, according to a preliminary decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The department’s decision, published Dec. 2, is part of an investigation by the agency into a complaint by California solar panel producer Auxin Solar claiming government support and subsidies in China — along with the use of forced labor — allows Asian manufacturers to produce solar panels and components for as much as 40% less than American companies like Auxin can.

Complicating matters, soon after the controversy erupted over the Department of Commerce’s investigation, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation declaring an energy emergency that suspends for two years any new tariffs on solar panels coming from Southeast Asia, irrespective of the Commerce Department’s determination in Auxin’s case.

The White House’s decision followed intense lobbying by the solar industry and politicians to end the federal investigation, including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and U.S. Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet.

Under the White House’s plan, the tariff suspension will “create a 24-month bridge as domestic manufacturing rapidly scales up to ensure the reliable supply of components that U.S. solar deployers need to construct clean energy projects.”

Auxin CEO Mamun Rashid filed the complaint with the U.S. Department of Commerce April 1, resulting in the export of solar panels from Asia coming to a sudden stop based on the fear that the department was contemplating 250% tariffs on the panels.

Rashid says predatory pricing by China destroyed the American solar panel manufacturing industry and the American worker hasn’t been able to get back into the race.

American industry, Rashid said in previous interviews, loses out when finished products made from Chinese materials in Southeast Asia — using technology stolen from America by China — are sold in the U.S. at a lower price than what Rashid said he pays for the components needed to assemble the panels here.

“If we sold a panel, let’s say for 39 cents per watt, you would have panels coming in at that same time from Southeast Asia between 22 cents and 25 cents per watt,” said Rashid in an April interview with The Denver Gazette.

China manufactures about 75% to 80% of the world’s production of polysilicon cells that are assembled into solar panels.

The list of products the DOC determined circumvented the tariffs include modules, laminates, and panels using crystalline silicon photovoltaic wafers produced in China.

The Obama administration put tariffs in place in 2012 following reports China was engaged in predatory. The move was also because of claims of the use of slave labor in China’s Xinjiang region, where the bulk of manufacturing takes place, to produce base materials from which solar panels are made, according to published reports.

To circumvent the tariffs, Rashid says, China began exporting components, including the critical polysilicon cells that convert light to electrical energy, to Southeast Asian companies — many of which are owned and controlled by China.

In an online press briefing in late November, Solar Energy Industries Association CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said Auxin’s circumvention claims are insufficient because the work being done in Southeast Asia is “major and significant work,” one of the metrics department investigators use to evaluate charges of product dumping.

Hopper said new tariffs would cripple the push for renewable energy.

“We can’t hit pause on addressing the climate crisis by closing off imports of critical products that will help accelerate the energy transition,” Hopper said.

Rashid said the association doesn’t represent domestic panel manufacturers.

Hopper responded to the ruling in a statement: “We’re obviously disappointed that Commerce elected to exceed its legal authority. The only good news here is that Commerce didn’t target all imports from the subject countries. Nonetheless, this decision will strand billions of dollars’ worth of American clean energy investments and result in the significant loss of good-paying, American, clean energy jobs.”

“We remain committed to our position; this is a meritless case that could lock up the vast majority of imports coming into the United States,” Hopper continued.

In a joint statement with eight other U.S. Senators Friday, Sens. John Hickenlooper, (D-CO) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) said: ”If we are serious about investing in a clean energy future and creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs, we need to ensure that solar projects across the U.S. have access to the basic components needed to operate, grow, and thrive…We urge the Biden Administration to take additional action by extending the two-year pause on new solar tariffs.”

Gov. Jared Polis weighed in with a statement to The Denver Gazette Tuesday supporting extending the tariff holiday.

“Governor Polis shares Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper’s concern about the impact of this decision on domestic solar deployment, energy costs, and American jobs lost due to the continued disruptions caused by this investigation,” said Polis’ press secretary Conor Cahill.

Rashid, in a statement to The Denver Gazette Monday said: “Although these decisions are preliminary and the proceedings remain ongoing, Commerce’s investigations have largely validated and confirmed Auxin’s allegations of Chinese cheating…We will continue to press forward in these cases as they continue to make sure all trade cheats are playing by the rules.”