(Adnkronos) – With the aim of making permanent the new global tariffs imposed for 150 days after the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional those declared last year, the Trump administration has launched investigations against dozens of trade partners, including the European Union, accused of exploiting forced labor for overproduction of goods. The investigations are part of the administration’s plan to revive the tariff policy, central to Trump’s economic agenda, after the resounding defeat at the Supreme Court, by appealing to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 which authorizes the president to make tariffs permanent in the face of verified unfair trade practices.
The new investigation will focus on the laws that countries use to regulate forced labor for the production of goods they export, not on their internal situations. It will involve 60 countries, including, along with the EU, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, China, and Saudi Arabia. For almost a century, the US has prohibited the import of goods produced with forced labor, and during Joe Biden’s presidency, a law was approved that broadens the interpretation of the term. For example, imports of goods produced in Xinjiang are prohibited, as they accuse China of using forced labor in the region.
“For too long, American workers and companies have been forced to compete with foreign producers who can gain an artificial cost advantage from the scourge of forced labor,” said Jamieson Greer, the US Trade Representative, explaining that this is one of several investigations his office has launched with the goal of having the tools to impose a durable global tariff system by summer. Among other possible unfair trade practices, digital services taxes, pharmaceutical product prices, and rice and seafood trade are being evaluated.
The Trump administration must contend with the July deadline, when the 150-day lifespan of the 10% global sanctions announced by the president will have passed, with threats to raise them to 15%, immediately after the humiliating Supreme Court ruling, also approved by two judges he appointed during his first term in the White House. To react quickly to the harsh political defeat of a ruling that declared his use of emergency economic powers to impose tariffs unconstitutional, Trump appealed to Section 122 of the Trade Act, which allows the president to impose measures only temporarily, for precisely 150 days, without obtaining congressional authorization.
Greer’s goal is therefore to conduct the new investigations “in an accelerated manner,” so that a new tool for imposing tariffs can be available once the 150 days have expired. “The policy remains the same, the tools may change due to the whims of judges,” said the US Trade Representative.
