U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday said it was launching two new trade investigations into excess industrial capacity in 16 major trading partners and into forced labor, to ​rebuild tariff pressure after the U.S. Supreme Court tore down much of Trump's tariff program last month.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that the "Section 301" unfair trade practices investigation could lead to ‌new tariffs imposed against China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Mexico by this summer.

Other trading partners subject to the excess capacity probe include Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Norway. Canada, the second-largest U.S. trading partner, was not mentioned as a target of the probe.

"So these investigations will focus on economies that we have 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," Greer told reporters on a conference call.

USTR's official notice, opens new tab for the excess capacity probe cited the automotive sector in China and in Japan, and said a growing number of companies were unprofitable ​or unable to meet interest payments from operations.

It said that despite China's electric vehicle capacity outstripping national demand, the country's top EV maker, BYD , was "aggressively expanding" its ⁠overseas manufacturing footprint, with factories in Uzbekistan, Thailand, Brazil, Hungary and Turkey and was expected to expand capacity in Europe

USTR cited large U.S. trade surpluses ​in Germany and Ireland as evidence of EU excess capacity. Singapore had excess global capacity in semiconductors despite a trade deficit with the U.S. and Norway had excess capacity by evidence of large fuels and seafood exports, it added.

FORCED LABOR ​PROBE

Greer also said that on Thursday he would initiate another probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to ban U.S. imports of goods produced with forced labor. That investigation covers more than 60 countries.

The U.S. 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 labor similar to those enshrined in a nearly century-old trade law.

Source: Reuters

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