American companies wanted higher tariffs than Trump imposed because American solar manufacturing is well behind other countries, which makes competing on the market more difficult. True, this will raise the price of solar panels, which could have a negative affect on the purchasing of them for green energy improvements, but it could also help American manufacturers to improve their share of sales on the market. If the costs don’t rise too significantly, it could result in an increase in American manufacturing without hurting sales. To help mitigate negative affects, the government should provide additional subsidies, tax relief, and investment in solar panels and related technology.
Mitigation tactics:
1) Subsidies: Okay so the company gets a subsidy to operate in the United States. Its still cheaper to purchase parts from china and manufacture in China. The goods, parts, skilled laborers, and/or core business is still primarily in China. When the subsidy runs or China provides better incentives, the American facility is closed and all that's left in the U.S. is marketing/retail side.
2) Tax: Same issues as 1. The business only creates jobs in the U.S. as long as they keep the tax incentive, and then threaten to move corporate/retail/marketing if they lose it, and then use or green earth sympathies to guilt politicians to keep the incentive.
3) Investment into Solar Panel: Okay. What type of investments? Are these government positions? I can get down with that. I think it would be better to use the government as a crutch for the solar energy businesses with certain competitive and goal-oriented conditions.
