By STEVE CALLAWAY

Next month, President Trump will decide whether to save hundreds of SolarWorld workers' jobs by imposing necessary tariffs on foreign companies that illegally dump cheap solar panels on the market and, in the process, drive U.S. manufacturers out of business.

Without such action, SolarWorld - one of Hillsboro's largest employers, and one of the last remaining American solar cell manufacturers - may not survive. We simply can't afford to lose more jobs to unfair foreign competition.

This isn't a partisan issue. This is about American workers making quality products and earning a good living. As a retired elementary school principal and mayor of Hillsboro, I personally know families who depend on SolarWorld to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads.

When SolarWorld began its operations in Hillsboro in 2008, it made use of a factory building that had been shuttered. They brought it back to life and created family-wage jobs for our people. Then, they expanded the facility from 440,000 square feet to 750,000 square feet so more workers could be hired.

Since 2016, we've seen SolarWorld drop from about 1,000 manufacturing jobs in Hillsboro down to 300 jobs at the plant. We need to save those jobs. We need to protect our neighbors, their co-workers and their families.

SolarWorld is an important local customer for roughly 200 other Oregon businesses, buying about $15 million in products annually. One of those suppliers, Ulbrich Solar Technologies, closed its Hillsboro plant in August - eliminating 35 jobs - in part because of SolarWorld's struggles with illegal solar cell dumping. Even service businesses like restaurants, retail stores and hotels are hit hard when a company as big as SolarWorld cuts jobs.

In October, I joined Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici to voice our community's concerns to the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, DC. We asked the ITC to recommend a remedy to the president that will keep SolarWorld and other American solar cell manufacturers in business. The ITC estimated that nearly 30 solar cell and panel manufacturers in the U.S. have gone out of business since 2012. But the tariffs proposed by the ITC fall short of what's needed to save SolarWorld and other American jobs. Now, it's up to the president to make the final decision on the level of foreign tariffs and import quotas.

While the president's decision should be about jobs, it's about more than that. SolarWorld's continued existence is a matter of national energy security. We would never allow America to be 100 percent dependent on foreign countries for oil production, and we cannot allow that to happen with solar energy panel manufacturing. If SolarWorld, the largest solar cell manufacturer in the United States, cannot compete on a level playing field, it will leave us vulnerable to dramatic price increases from the surviving foreign companies.

SolarWorld produces solar panels that are critical to achieving our country's long-term objectives for clean, renewable energy. SolarWorld and its employees will have a great opportunity to thrive in the future, if the president ensures a level playing field for U.S. manufacturers. Let's hope President Trump is listening.

Steve Callaway is mayor of the city of Hillsboro, home to SolarWorld's North American headquarters.