US-China solar trade war (2012 onward)
In 2012 the US imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese-made solar cells. Several follow-up reviews kept the duties in place, making direct exports from China uneconomic.
Chinese manufacturers moved production to Southeast Asia to keep selling to US buyers.
Those relocated plants later became targets of circumvention cases, and production moved again, to India, Indonesia, and Laos.
The Solar IV case targets exactly those relocated Chinese-owned factories, the third wave of supply after two earlier rounds of US duties.
