A national-security tariff, a retaliatory tariff, an antidumping duty, a safeguard measure, an import ban and a carbon border charge are six different legal tools.
Solar trade reporting routinely flattens them into 'tariffs'. The confusion is not cosmetic: the tools have different authorities, different prerequisites and different consequences for a tracker importer.
This field guide is the terminology backbone for every Trade Monthly column and Trade Remedies case file on the site.
Why this entry exists
Six-column comparison
Legal basis, administering authority, the conduct being addressed, whether injury or unfair pricing must be found, the form of the measure and its typical rate expression.
The framework
A status vocabulary
Petition, initiation, preliminary determination, final determination, in force, review and expired are discrete states. A rate quoted at preliminary stage is a deposit rate, not a final duty.
Three recurring errors
Treating a solar-cell antidumping case as a racking case, describing the UFLPA as a tariff, and calling an import ban a duty. Each appears in our corrections checklist.
Data box
| Field | Value as reported |
|---|---|
| Instruments | Section 232, Section 301, AD/CVD, safeguards, UFLPA, CBAM |
| Authorities | Federal Register / Proclamation, USITC, USTR, CBP, EU DG TRADE, WTO notifications |
| Status terms | petition, initiation, preliminary, final, in force, review, expired |
| Rule | Never mix tariff, antidumping duty and import ban |
All figures above are quoted with the unit and reference period used by the primary source. They are reproduced here for reference, not independently re-measured.
How to use it in a tender or a brief: verification note
Every measure in our case files must carry its legal instrument, its status and an effective date. Rates are labelled as ad valorem duty, dumping margin or cash-deposit rate as appropriate.
What to watch next
New Federal Register or EUR-Lex notices that change the status of an existing case file.
Primary sources
- Federal Register / U.S. Proclamation 2026-04-02
- USITC, USTR, CBP (UFLPA), EU DG TRADE / EUR-Lex, WTO notifications
Researched and written by the solarrack.wiki editorial desk. Every figure in this article carries a source and a verification note; where a claim could not be confirmed against a primary document, it is labelled as such. Corrections: [email protected]
