[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 72 (Friday, April 28, 2023)] [House] [Pages H2093-H2103] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-28
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. SMITH : I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I also want to highlight another member of the House Committee on Ways and Means that is a cosponsor and a supporter of this resolution, Ms. Terri Sewell from Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Auxin Solar founder and CEO thanking Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans for bringing this resolution to the House floor. Auxin is a small California company with 37 full-time employees that filed a petition last year asking the Department of Commerce to investigate whether Chinese firms were circumventing existing tariffs. Auxin strongly supports this resolution so that the company and its workers can get relief from unfair Chinese competition and end what it calls the get- out-of-jail-free card that President Biden gave to duty evaders.  Auxin Solar,  San Jose, CA, April 27, 2023. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Speaker: I'm writing to you on behalf of myself, my business partner Sherry Tai, the 37 full-time employees of Auxin Solar, and our families to thank you for bringing to the floor for a vote H.J. Res.39, the Congressional Review Act resolution. By just bringing this resolution to the floor for a vote, you are sending a strong signal that the United States Congress will stand up against the Chinese Communist Party and their unfair trade practices on behalf of American manufacturers and our workers. More importantly, when we see Congress vote on this resolution, you will be giving me and Sherry the strength to continue our fight against unfairly traded solar imports and the confidence to continue to reinvest our personal finances into making Auxin Solar a leader in U.S. solar manufacturing. Sherry and I co-founded Auxin Solar in 2008 and, since that time, we have been providing high-paying jobs to our employees in Silicon Valley, California. In 2008, we forecasted that solar cells and solar modules would eventually become commodity products that could compete on a cost basis with traditional energy sources. That has come true. Solar deployment is reaching year-over-year all-time highs because of the cost parity with traditional energy sources. With our low overhead, competitive costs, and high employee retention rates, we should have been printing money in a growing demand environment. But what we didn't forecast when we started Auxin Solar was the anticompetitive behavior of China and the success that China would have in dominating the solar supply chain. In the early 2010s, China was so far behind the United States in solar technology and know-how. To catch up, CCP agents stole our intellectual property. Then the CCP used draconian duties to effectively prohibit U.S. polysilicon companies from selling into the Chinese market. When the U.S. imposed duties to offset predatory pricing in solar, China used its industrial policies to assist major Chinese CCP- connected solar companies in their move out of China to circumvent U.S. trade laws. It took just ten years but now, China dominates the entire solar supply chain. They use forced labor practices to mine polysilicon. They use coal- fired energy to power ingot and wafer-making. And they use Southeast Asia as screw-driver operations to circumvent trade laws. In the face of predatory Chinese pricing in the United States, and when our domestic competitors closed, Auxin continued to operate. Sadly, what we've learned in the last five years is that the trade remedy laws are not designed for medium-sized enterprises like Auxin. Take for example what happened during the initial solar safeguard. Although demand continued to grow with duties in place in 2018, major energy companies complained and lobbied to attain an exclusion for bifacial panels. Bifacial panels are solar modules that generate electricity using both sides of the panel. Since 2016--well before the safeguard even started--Auxin Solar was one of the only companies to produce bifacial panels in America. Our bifacial panels were used in major utility-scale projects in Lumberton, New Jersey and by Georgia Power at the Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. They were also used in Columbus, Ohio on the largest ever commercial rooftop solar array ever installed. Since an exclusion for bifacial panels was granted, bifacial panel pricing premiums collapsed and bifacials quickly became the majority of imports. In fact, just to avoid duties, companies will go so far as to put bifacial panels on residential homes even though only one side of the panel is used. This is done simply to avoid duties and has the direct result of undermining Auxin's business. The same thing happened again when Auxin tried to stand up and combat the surge in panels from Southeast Asia, which consist almost entirely of Chinese content. Had these exact same panels come directly from China, they would have been subject to duties put in place by the U.S. International Trade Commission. Although others in the domestic industry wanted this circumvention loophole closed, we were the only ones willing to publicly put our name on a filing. We were immediately subjected to online harassment, cyber intrusion, and attempted physical break-ins to our facility. Our stellar Google reviews, which we use to pitch to potential employees, became single star reviews accompanied by hateful language. A website called ``ExposeAuxin.com'' was created to spread lies and disinformation about us. Against it all, we continued to have faith that the Commerce Department's quasi-judicial process would work to instill price discipline in the market and close the duty evasion loophole. But President Biden mistakenly intervened in our circumvention case because of a loud misinformation campaign lead by Chinese special interests. The resulting tariff-free holiday for all imports from Southeast Asia is bad policy because it acts as a ``get out of jail free'' card to duty evaders and sends a signal to law-abiding importers that it doesn't pay to follow the law and pay a fair price for a solar panel. Today at Auxin Solar, we're operating at a fraction of our capacity utilization because of the concerted effort to silence us and scare us into withdrawing our trade fight. Our ability to raise capital, hire new employees for expansion, and secure new sales opportunities continue to be hampered. Sherry and I are first generation immigrants. We are a minority- and woman-owned medium sized business. When politicians talk about how Washington should work better for middleclass Americans, the ``tariff holiday'' does not do that. Instead, it provides a windfall for Wall Street and doesn't give a fighting chance to American workers to compete against Chinese solar. On broad policy, we must counteract the Chinese dominance of the solar supply chain for our energy security. We should be asking ourselves whether we want the Chinese Communist Party to control our electricity grid. We should be asking ourselves if the Chinese Communist Party will stifle our ability to meet our carbon-neutral goals by imposing     export restraints on key technology or halting sales of solar to the U.S. And we should be asking if we are okay with meeting our carbon objectives on the back of forced labor, from massive expansions in coal-fired power plants, and from intellectual property theft. I've been in the solar business for 15 years and solar deployment is good for business. But there are bigger issues here than quarterly profits and investor returns. This is why I strongly support your creation of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, which should continue to shed light on these issues for the American people to understand. At Auxin Solar we've withstood Chinese predatory behavior for 15 years. I refuse to let the Chinese prevail and put Auxin Solar out of business. Right now we're in the midst of a major capacity expansion at Auxin Solar funded by me, Sherry, and our families. Once we have our expansion online, we would be pleased to welcome you to visit so that we can thank you in person for bringing H.J. Res. 39 to the floor for an up-or-down vote. Sincerely, Mamun Rashid, CEO.