BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States will need to offer incentives to attract foreign solar firms to invest there after U.S. President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on solar panel imports, an executive at Longi Green Energy Tech (SS:601012) said on Tuesday.
However, Longi, one of China's top solar cell makers, won't give up on the U.S. market as a result of the move, global marketing director Xia Aimin said at a briefing.
China is the world's biggest solar panel producer.
Xia said Longi still needs to assess the impact of Trump's new policy, which was announced last month to help U.S. manufacturers, but which has alarmed Asian trading partners that produce lower cost goods.
The administration also put a tariff on imported washing machines.
"We realise that trade protectionism is going to have a severe effect on the solar market," Longi's chief strategy officer Shang Yaohua said at the same briefing.
"However, no matter how trade policy is heading, we will continue to expand capacity overseas and increase investment overseas," he added.