In a move seen as opening a potential pathway to replacing the international trade tariffs struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Trump administration is launching trade investigations into dozens of foreign countries, including the European Union.
Trade experts view the new investigations as a path to a replacement for the tariffs President Trump had used to obtain more fair trade agreements with a number of nations over the past year.
Those tariffs, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, were struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, a decision Trump has criticized multiple times.
Trump immediately responded with a universal 10% tariff under a different law, Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, then raised it to 15%.
Ambassador Greer announced the initiation of Section 301 investigations into acts, policies, and practices of various economies relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.
Learn more: https://t.co/c2acombThV pic.twitter.com/EhAcr8so2Y
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) March 11, 2026
Section 301 investigations led by USTR serve as an enforcement mechanism to ensure countries comply with the trade deals. pic.twitter.com/kc2qP8EXb3
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) February 25, 2026
American manufacturers and steelworkers applauded the Trump Administration for launching investigations into various economies to assess potential structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.
Learn more: https://t.co/3hCzha2uf6 pic.twitter.com/7FCK9YRKOS
— United States Trade Representative (@USTradeRep) March 12, 2026
The Washington Examiner reported the U.S. Trade Representative Office now is opening sweeping Section 301 investigations into 60 countries “over their failures to ban the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
Federal law bans unfair trade practices in foreign nations that “are deemed unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or otherwise restrict U.S. commerce.”
So far the investigations by the Trump administration have included Canada, China, India, Iraq, Mexico, and South Korea and the European Union’s 27 member states.
The trade office charges those nations aren’t working hard enough to impose and enforce measures to ban the production of imported goods with forced labor.
“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor,” USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer said.
“These investigations will determine whether foreign governments have taken sufficient steps to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor and how the failure to eradicate these abhorrent practices impacts U.S. workers and businesses,” he said.
The report noted: “The announcement came one day after USTR launched new Section 301 investigations regarding structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors. That set of investigations is much smaller in scope, with only 16 countries facing scrutiny.”
Greer didn’t threaten tariffs, but Section 301 allows his office to impose tariffs and import restrictions if an investigation finds that a country engaged in unfair trade practices.
