United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer on Wednesday announced the initiation of investigations regarding the acts, policies, and practices of various economies under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors. The investigations will determine whether those acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. The economies subject to these investigations are: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India.
The trade ambassador said his office will begin accepting public comments on Tuesday, with a deadline of April 15 to submit. The administration will then hold a public hearing on or around May 5.
“The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us. Today’s investigations underscore President Trump’s commitment to reshore critical supply chains and create good-paying jobs for American workers across our manufacturing sectors,” said Ambassador Greer. “The Trump Administration’s reindustrialization efforts continue to face significant challenges due to foreign economies’ structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors. Across numerous sectors, many U.S. trading partners are producing more goods than they can consume domestically. This overproduction displaces existing U.S. domestic production or prevents investment and expansion in U.S. manufacturing production that otherwise would have been brought online. In many sectors, the United States has lost substantial domestic production capacity or has fallen worryingly behind foreign competitors.”
The announcement comes weeks after President Trump imposed a 10 percent tariff on goods not covered under current exemptions. He implemented the 10 percent levies after the Supreme Court struck down a majority of his import taxes imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 last month. The latest tariffs were imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act, which allows the president to hike import taxes to address “large and serious United States balance-of-payments deficits.”
The 10 percent tariffs are set to expire July 24. Greer said Wednesday that the administration wants to conclude its probe into foreign trading practices by then.
