Chinese financial and business news site Caixin Media wrote that Chinese solar equipment exports fell 10 percent between 2015 and 2016. The statistics came from Zhang Sen, the secretary general of the solar division within China’s Chamber of Commerce for Imports and Exports of Machinery and Electronic Products, who spoke at a seminar late last week.

Zhang apparently attributed the drop to anti-dumping and anti-subsidy policies from the US, the EU, Australia, Canada, India, and Turkey, as well as to China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative , which was designed to encourage Chinese investment in neighboring economies. According to Caixin, the result of that initiative was that “solar power equipment such as panels and batteries have been manufactured and exported by other countries and thus don’t count as exports as such.”

The US and other countries have imposed tariffs on Chinese solar products for years. A large jump in tariffs came in 2012 when the US Commerce Department decided that Chinese manufacturers were wrongly undercutting US solar manufacturers. That year, many Chinese solar companies were hit with punitive tariffs of around 30 percent on equipment imported by the US. American solar panel manufacturers complained that Chinese manufacturers were taking advantage of massive loans from China’s state-run banks and counting on demand from foreign countries whose governments subsidized solar panels.

Some companies have faced tariffs of up to 239 percent. In 2015, the US Customs and Border Patrol wrote that one importer owed more than $50 million in duties, fees, and penalties from mislabeling solar imports to avoid heavier tariffs.

Not everyone in the US has agreed with the tariff strategy, of course. Some solar energy advocates have argued that this drives the cost of renewable energy up, which is the opposite of what we want to be doing these days. The EU recently revisited its system of tariffs and duties on Chinese solar equipment, too. It backed a two-year extension of tariffs on Chinese solar imports with a cap of 11.5 percent, although a majority of EU countries opposed placing anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels, so that will likely be reviewed.

At last week’s seminar, Zhang said that, despite the tariffs and duties, solar equipment from China is still prevalent throughout the world. It made up 21 percent of the US market in 2016, 63 percent of the Japanese market, and 74 percent of the market in Turkey. Caixin wrote that China exported $14 billion in solar equipment in 2016.

Next year may hold surprises, Caixin wrote. “Zhang said that he expected trade disputes to continue in 2017, especially given the anti-China stance of new U.S. President Donald Trump, and this was likely to have an influence on the solar sector as well,” the paper reported.