US-India trade agreement reduces general tariff amount on Indian solar panels

It is welcome news for Indian solar panel manufacturers. Indian solar panel brands were becoming popular in the United States, but import numbers relatively stalled while the excessive tariff percentages were in effect.

“The $500 billion India-U.S. trade deal, with reciprocal tariffs rationalized to 18%, represents a structural inflection point for India’s energy industry — particularly on the export front,” stated Gyanesh Chaudhary, chairman and managing director of Indian panel company Vikram Solar. “Indian energy and clean-tech exports to the U.S. have always played an instrumental role to the industry, and this agreement significantly enhances our global competitiveness by improving price efficiency, certainty of access and long-term demand visibility. For Indian manufacturers and solution providers across solar, energy equipment, advanced materials and power infrastructure, this creates a powerful runway to scale exports, deepen value addition and integrate more meaningfully into global supply chains.”

While the general tariff reduction will be helpful for Indian panel brands, the United States is still exploring whether India panel imports should have antidumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD). The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) began an AD/CVD investigation in August 2025 on solar cells and panels imported from India and the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia and Laos. The Dept. of Commerce will determine potential tariff amounts for solar imports from all three countries if the ITC finds unfair trade practices.

Import data through November 2025 shows the steady import numbers from India when compared to Indonesia and Laos. Data for the first 11 months of 2025 shows India in fourth place for total panel imports, also behind Vietnam.