Athira Sethu
Kochi, 25 Feb 2026
The US government has decided to impose high tariffs on solar panels imported from India, as well as from Indonesia and Laos, due to the unfair support of their solar sectors. The new tariffs on solar panels imported from India are 126%, while those from Indonesia will have tariffs ranging from 86% to 143%, and 81% for Laos.
These new tariffs are imposed by the US Commerce Department, which claims that these countries have given subsidies to their solar panel manufacturers. This has led to the sale of their solar panels at cheaper rates, thus affecting the US solar panel manufacturers. Although the tariffs are imposed to support US solar panel manufacturers, they may also lead to increased costs for solar panel producers and consumers in the US.
The tariffs are not the same as the global tariffs imposed by former US President Donald Trump. These tariffs were recently rejected by the US Supreme Court. Following this decision, Trump imposed a new 10% tariff on certain goods and announced that he may increase it to 15% in the future. Earlier this month, Trump signed a trade agreement with India to decrease economic tensions between the two countries.
In the first half of 2025, the countries that imported the most solar panels to the US were India, Indonesia, and Laos, accounting for 57% of total solar panel imports. This is based on data from BloombergNEF. Many solar companies started importing solar panels from these countries after the US imposed high tariffs on solar panels imported from other Southeast Asian nations, which comprised a large portion of solar panel imports to the US before the tariffs.
In 2024, the total value of solar panel imports from India alone reached $792.6 million, a huge jump from $84.3 million in 2022. High tariffs imposed on solar panels imported to the US might make it difficult for Indian solar panel manufacturers to export their products to the US.
Solar stocks fall:
Solar stocks in the Indian market reacted to the news of high rates imposed by the US government with most trading in deep losses. Share prices of Waaree Energies, Premier Energies, Vikram Solar, and others were trading in the red at NSE (at 2 PM on Wednesday).
Waaree Energies was trading 9.72% down at RS 2,729.60; while Premeir Energies was down 4.76% at Rs 740.10 on Wednesday at NSE (2 PM IST).
