US President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Saturday indicating plans to move forward with an extension of safeguard taxes to cover double-sided solar panels that were previously exempted, while also raising the future overall tariff rate from 15 percent to 18 percent.

The proclamation comes more than two year years after Trump approved new tariffs and quotas on imported solar cells (and washing machines) in 2018.

Aimed at imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (CSPV) solar panels, the proclamation concluded that “the domestic industry has begun to make a positive adjustment to import competition, shown by the increases in domestic module production capacity, production, and market share.”

After receiving a report conducted by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and a “petition from the majority of the representatives of the domestic industry,” the president determined that additional tariff adjustments are still required.

Trump’s 2018 solar safeguard duties began at 30 percent and were set to drop to 15 percent before their termination at the end of 2021. However, Saturday’s proclamation announced his plans to increase the rate in the final year of the taxes: “to achieve the full remedial effect envisaged [in the 2018 proclamation], it is necessary to adjust the duty rate of the tariff for the fourth year of the safeguard measure to 18 percent.”

Finally, Trump proclaimed that he would authorize the Office of the US Trade Representative to ask the ITC to investigate whether the tariffs should be extended beyond their scheduled expiration date “to prevent or remedy serious injury” to US solar manufactures.