Qu Xiaohua, chairman of Canadian Solar, said that Chinese solar firms have just walked out of a trough and once the punitive duties were levied, a large number of solar firms would go bankrupt.

For leading Chinese solar companies, the US market accounts for a significant share of their global shipments and they could be badly affected, said Fan.

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With the high duties, the companies could hardly maintain profit margins and competitive edge, said Fan, adding that the US market accounts for one fifth of its global sales. Other countries and regions might follow suit by making similar moves and the global sales of Chinese solar firms could be badly hit.

Even if the US and China agreed to a minimum price hike through negotiations like that with the EU, the struggling Chinese solar firms would still lose price competitiveness and be forced to retreat from the US market. The US accounts for one tenth of China's PV product exports.

China's Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday blasted the US move as an abuse of trade remedy measures.

"US restrictions on Chinese products are an abuse of trade remedy measures and have a clear hint of trade protectionism. They will certainly worsen the Sino-US dispute in PV trade," said the statement.

Resorting to frequent punitive measures will not help solve the endogenous problems of the US solar industry, added the ministry.

"China hopes the United States can be prudent in dealing with the probe and terminate the investigation procedure as soon as possible with a view to promoting healthy competition in the global solar industry," it said.