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The US government announced on Monday, 22 January 2018 that it would implement an import duty of up to 50 per cent on import washing machines and 30 per cent on solar modules from South Korea and China. The tariffs would be combined with quotas.

The decision comes as the government enforces the “America First” trade policy, however, trading partners including China and South Korea heavily condemned the act with China’s Commerce Ministry blasted the tariffs as an “abuse of trade remedy measures.” South Korean Trade Ministry is planning to file an official complain to WTO against the latest “protectionist” and “unfair” measures.

It is reported that foreign makers of both washers and solar panels have ramped up export during end of 2017 to get ahead of the tariffs, from which consumers might now see a sudden drop in supply.

Washing machines use a good portion of either ABS or PP block copolymers while solar panels use ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) as a layer to encapsulate the photovoltaic cells. The impact on these two markets has yet to be clear, however, it does concern players in the petchem industry.