FORCED LABOUR PROBE
Greer also said that on Thursday, he would initiate another probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to ban US imports of goods produced with forced labour. That investigation covers more than 60 countries.
The US has already cracked down on solar panel imports and other goods from China’s Xinjiang region under the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act signed into law by former President Joe Biden, and the probe could expand such actions to other countries.
Greer said he wanted other countries to enforce bans on goods produced with forced labour similar to those enshrined in a nearly century-old trade law.
The US alleges that Chinese authorities have established labour camps for ethnic Uyghur and other Muslim groups in the western region, though Beijing denies allegations of abuse.
Greer said that he hoped to conclude the Section 301 investigations, including proposed remedies, before new temporary tariffs imposed by Trump in late February expire in July.
After the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s global tariffs as illegal under a national emergencies law on Feb 20, he imposed a 10 per cent tariff for 150 days under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974.
He laid out a swift timeline for the excess capacity probe, with public comments accepted through Apr 15 and a public hearing slated for about May 5.
The probes offer the Trump administration an avenue to rebuild a credible tariff threat against trading partners to keep them negotiating and implement trade deals that were cut to reduce his higher tariff rates under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Greer said the new probes, long telegraphed by administration officials, should come as no surprise to trading partners, and they should stick to their deals, although he stopped short of saying that this would make them immune to all new Section 301 tariffs.
He said that Trump was determined to pursue tariffs and “will find a way to deal with unfair trading practices. He’ll find a way to get our trade deficit down. He’ll find a way to protect US manufacturing. We have a lot of tools to do it”.
The probes come as Trump officials, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, prepare this week to meet with Chinese counterparts in Paris to set the stage for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of March.
Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods were effectively cut by 10 percentage points by the Supreme Court decision and subsequent temporary tariffs, reducing US leverage on China trade and export controls.
Trump, during his first term, used a Section 301 probe to back his tariffs on many Chinese imports of about 25 per cent and the law is widely viewed as legally robust, having withstood prior court challenges.
The excess capacity probe targets an area of concern raised with China by successive administrations from Trump’s first term through the Biden administration, growing state-supported manufacturing output that is flooding the world with cheap goods.
Greer said this includes production “untethered” to market demand and that the problem has spread to other countries.
He said the probe will focus on evidence, including large global current account surpluses, government subsidies, suppressed domestic wages, noncommercial activities of state-owned enterprises, inadequate environmental and labour standards, subsidised lending and currency practices.
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