The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to rule today on a complaint that’s intended to protect the U.S. solar industry and may hinder more companies than it helps.

The commission is set to make a preliminary decision on whether solar products imported from Taiwan and China harmed U.S. producers, a protectionist strategy sought by a U.S. panel manufacturer that’s part of the industry’s slowest-growing segment.

Duties would help manufacturers including the U.S. unit of SolarWorld AG (SWVK), which competes with low-cost panels from Asia and filed a complaint on Dec. 31 with the U.S. Commerce Department and the Trade Commission. Trade barriers could raise prices on imported panels and hurt developers such as SolarCity Corp. (SCTY), which buy them to satisfy booming demand for rooftop photovoltaic systems.

“It’s infuriating what SolarWorld is trying to do,” said John Berger, chief executive officer of Sunnova Energy Corp., a Houston-based rooftop solar developer. “It’s a disservice to the industry. It will be negative for U.S. employment.”

SolarWorld is acting on behalf of 244 U.S. solar companies and disputes the notion that duties will boost prices.

“Anyone who claims prices will definitely go up is holding water for the Chinese manufacturers,” Ben Santarris, a spokesman for the company’s Hillsboro, Oregon-based U.S. unit, said in an interview Feb. 12. “We hope to restore true competition. We cannot compete with the Chinese government. We’re open to any solution that gets the central Chinese government out of our marketplace.”

  Source:http://www.bloomberg.com/