As a result, many Chinese companies were able to avoid the duties by assembling panels from cells produced elsewhere, especially in Taiwan, even if those cells were derived from components — called ingots and wafers — from China. Should SolarWorld win the case, modules made from Taiwanese cells or cells made from Chinese ingots or wafers would be subject to duties as well.

“We’re finishing the job of presenting the facts to our trade regulators to prevent China from further damaging yet another manufacturing industry and another rich base of employment,” Mukesh Dulani, president of SolarWorld Industries America, said in a statement. “China obviously recognizes the key importance of solar technology manufacturing to future economic competitiveness. But we do, too.”

Under federal regulations, the Commerce Department is required to consider the petition, and is to determine whether to investigate around the middle of January. China is continuing to pursue imposing duties on American polysilicon, the base compound for conventional solar panels; the country negotiated a settlement with the European Union over similar trade complaints in July.

SolarWorld, the American subsidiary of a German company, has found support for its case among some solar employers in the United States, where many manufacturers have been squeezed to the brink of bankruptcy and beyond by fierce competition from China. But the main industry trade group expressed disappointment with the new petition and called for renewed negotiations.

“Trade litigation is a blunt instrument and, alone, incapable of resolving the complex competitiveness issues that exist between the U.S. and Chinese solar industries,” Rhone Resch, chief executive of the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group, said in a statement.