Reported from the source

Quick summary: The U.S. has initiated new Section 301 trade investigations into 60 economies, including China and the EU, to assess their efforts against forced-labor imports. This follows probes launched the previous day into 16 trading partners, including China, regarding excess industrial capacity. These actions, under the legal authority that allows for tariffs without congressional approval, appear to be a strategic move after the Supreme Court invalidated President Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs.”

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced new Section 301(b) investigations targeting 60 economies, such as China, the European Union, India, Mexico, the U.K., Brazil, and Russia. These probes aim to determine if these governments have failed to adequately curb imports of goods produced with forced labor, a practice U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated impacts U.S. workers and businesses. These forced-labor investigations follow Section 301 probes launched a day earlier into 16 economies, including China, Australia, Indonesia, and Japan, focusing on excess industrial capacity. Experts suggest these new investigations serve as an alternative to the “reciprocal tariffs” that the U.S. Supreme Court quashed last month, ruling President Trump had exceeded his authority. Following that ruling, Trump imposed a 10% global blanket tariff under Section 122 and threatened to raise it. The sweeping scope of these investigations has raised concerns among trade experts. Deborah Elms of the Hinrich Foundation called the April 28-May 1 hearing timeline “unrealistically short” and questioned the rationale of targeting the EU, which has its own legislative framework, while sparing countries with weaker enforcement. Wendy Cutler of the Asia Society Policy Institute warned that the broad approach risks alienating partners and hindering collective efforts to address China’s industrial overcapacity. The investigations coincide with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s upcoming meeting with Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Paris, intended to prepare for a potential Trump-Xi summit. Wang Huiyao of the Center for China and Globalization stated that launching new probes before the summit “sends the wrong signal.” While China’s commerce ministry pushed back against the “narrow-minded” framing of its industrial output as excess capacity and urged diplomatic solutions, both sides are expected to keep the Trump-Xi meeting on track, according to Stephen Olson of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Previous Section 301 investigations by both the Trump and Biden administrations have led to tariffs or remain ongoing.

Source: www.cnbc.com