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The trade war between U.S. solar manufacturers and China continues to blaze, and today the U.S. Department of Commerce stirred up more controversy with its announcement that any duties levied by the U.S. will be charged retroactively.

The -led celebrated the ruling, a聽response聽to what Commerce Department called 鈥渃ritical-circumstances鈥� between U.S. solar manufacturers and China. The coalition sees the ruling as a step toward victory in its anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade complaint filed last November.

But the faction of U.S. solar installers and other companies that oppose the trade complaint 鈥� the 鈥� today released a study that paints a devastating picture of the domestic solar industry if tariffs are placed on Chinese modules.

The economic analysis, prepared by the Brattle Group, finds that a 100 percent tariff on imported solar cells and modules from China would result in as many as 50,000 net lost jobs in the U.S. over the next three years. The study also anticipates retaliatory tariffs placed on U.S. exports of polysilicon to China, which could put nearly 11,000 more U.S. jobs at risk in the first year.

In response, Gordon Brisner, president of SolarWorld Industries America released a statement calling the study 鈥渉ighly speculative.鈥� Brisner argues that the study ignores the illegality of China’s trade practices and the impacts those actions have already had on solar manufacturing jobs.

If the Department of Commerce imposes preliminary countervailing duties on March 2, the duties will apply to all imports of cells and modules from China brought into the country starting Dec. 3, 2011. The agency is scheduled to issue a separate preliminary ruling on anti-dumping duties on March 27.

The U.S. International Trade Commission issued a preliminary determination on Dec. 2 in agreement with the claims that Chinese imports are harming the U.S. solar manufacturing industry.