President Biden announced new tariffs against China last week in an effort to strengthen American manufacturers. One of those industries is solar energy — the tariffs raised taxes on imported solar panels to 50% — and First Solar (FSLR) CEO Mark Widmar joins Market Domination to discuss how he expects the sector to be impacted.

"The tariffs that were announced last week were just another step in trying to create a stable policy environment to ensure that there's a level playing field here in the US to make meaningful investments," Widmar explains. He says that a stable policy environment will spur innovation and ensure a return on invested capital.

"99% of the product that is going into Europe is supplied from China, and we all know that China also has a tendency towards retaliation," Widmar adds.

He goes on to say that the US needs to ensure long-term energy independence and security, as the solar sector remains competitive: "I don't see why we, as a country, or really any country, should have that ripple effect come into their domestic market. If China wants to create significant overcapacity three or four times their domestic demand, let them do that and let the bloodbath stay in China."

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl