New York: US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday launched a new trade investigation into excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners. The development comes after the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s previous use of tariffs by declaring an economic emergency.
According to Reuters, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that the “Section 301" unfair trade practices investigation could lead to imposition of new tariffs against China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Mexico by this summer.
The other trading partners subject to the excess capacity probe include: Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Norway.
Greer informed that the investigations will focus on economies that the US has evidence appear to exhibit structural excess capacity and production in various manufacturing sectors, such as through larger persistent trade surpluses or underutilized or unused capacity.
The US Trade Representative added that he would initiate another probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to ban US imports of goods produced with forced labor.
