For those of you who follow my blog (and if you don’t, shame on you), you already know that the debate over the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing’s (CASM) trade complaint against Chinese panel manufacturers fascinates me .

Not a day went by during the past five months where I didn’t receive a press release from people weighing in on the conflict. It was usually from one of the two heavyweights in the fight — the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), which opposes the action, and CASM, led by SolarWorld Americas, which filed the complaint last October. The volleys often arrived on successive days, as one organization responded to a press release put out by the other the day before.

I worry that public spats like these weaken the industry overall. I wish we could handle this internal industry dispute behind closed doors instead of taking potshots at each other through the media. No matter how this turns out, I worry that the trust between these the U.S. manufacturers and installers might be irreparably harmed.

I heard Shayle Kann from GTM Research say he expects tariffs to be imposed on Chinese imports, possibly by the end of March, that will range anywhere from 10% to more than 100% as a result of the CASM trade complaint.

He added that the Chinese producers would not stand by and let that happen without consequences. China could impose tariffs on silicon imports from the United States or move their production plants to other Southeast Asian countries to avoid the tariffs (in some cases, this is already happening). So Kann doesn’t see any huge spike in PV module prices as a result of the tariffs — and therein lies the crux of the matter for me.

CASE’s main argument against the trade complaint is that the loss of inexpensive Chinese solar panels will slow the growth of U.S. installations, thereby hurting the downstream members of the supply chain: installers. They argue that it’s OK if U.S manufacturers who can’t compete with the Chinese module makers go out of business.

But I don’t agree, especially if Kann’s supposition is true that the tariffs will have no significant impact on module prices. I believe that the United States can’t cede the actual manufacturing jobs — real, tangible, good-paying jobs — to everyone else in the world.

China joined the World Trade Organization in 2000 (with U.S. support, I might add), under which they agreed to play by the rules. That’s why I support U.S. government’s efforts to require the Chinese to adhere to the World Trade Organization’s rules and regulations when it comes to fair competition.