The opening salvo of Trade Wars

From CNN/Money:

U.S. to impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels
The U.S. Commerce Department announced tariffs on Chinese-made solar panels on Tuesday that it said had benefited from unfair subsidies by Beijing.

The preliminary ruling came in response to a complaint from SolarWorld Industries America, a U.S. manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Germany's SolarWorld. The tariffs were lower than many analysts had predicted, however, boosting shares of Chinese solar-panel makers in Tuesday's trading.

Under the ruling, which still needs to be finalized following a review process, Chinese-made panels would be hit with tariffs ranging from 2.9% to 4.7%.

The issue has divided the U.S. solar industry, with some companies complaining that Chinese trade practices are smothering U.S. manufacturers.

"Today's announcement affirms what U.S. manufacturers have long known: Chinese manufacturers have received unfair and [World Trade Organization]-illegal subsidies," Steve Ostrenga, CEO of Wisconsin's Helios Solar Works, said in a statement.

But many others say the complaint is counter-productive. Jigar Shah, president of the industry group Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, said in a statement that tariffs on Chinese panels would slow the growth of solar and cost the industry jobs in the U.S., for example in installation.

Any kind of price instability or imposing tariffs creates a short-term increase in benefits but it will always come around to bite you in the ass. You will find this at the heart of most bubbles, Jimmah Carter's gas lines, the housing bubble, the list goes on and on. The joke is that the company mentioned in the article:

SolarWorld Industries America, a U.S. manufacturer that is a subsidiary of Germany's SolarWorld

may well be located in the USA and hire American workers, but, as a subsidiary of a German company, the corporate profits head across the Atlantic to our German friends. We have a non-US company requesting and getting a substantial policy change. Of course, the US Solar industries are not going to eat the additional cost of the Chinese panels, the consumer and all taxpayers will see the increase. The consumer as an increased price, all the rest of us as the subsidies increase to make the whole solar boondoggle 'profitable'. Bleagh... Being this stoopid should hurt.