U.S. launches fresh Section 301 probes into 60 economies over forced-labor

The U.S. on Thursday launched new trade investigations into 60 economies to determine whether they failed to curb imports of goods made with forced labor, a day after it initiated unfair trade practices probe into 16 trading partners.

The new investigations, conducted under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, include China, the European Union, India and Mexico, according to a statement from the United States Trade Representative.

“Despite the international consensus against forced labor, governments have failed to impose and effectively enforce measures banning goods produced with forced labor from entering their markets,” U.S. Trade Representative 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.  

Section 301 permits the U.S. to impose tariffs on countries found to have engaged in unfair trade practices without congressional authorization — legal authority that U.S. President Donald Trump had used during his first term to levy duties on Chinese goods.

The forced-labor probes follow Section 301 investigations launched on Wednesday, which targeted excess industrial capacity across 16 economies, including China, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand.

The latest probes expanded the list of countries under Section 301 scrutiny to include more countries such as the U.K., Brazil and Russia.

The new investigations appear to serve as an alternative route to replace at least some of the “reciprocal tariffs” that the U.S. Supreme Court quashed last month.

“With the strike-down of the reciprocal tariffs, the administration made it clear that their plan-B would be rolled out soonest,” said Wendy Cutler, vice president at Asia Society Policy Institute and a former U.S. trade representative.  

The Supreme Court invalidated Trump’s reciprocal tariffs last month, ruling that the president had exceeded his power. Trump then immediately imposed a 10% global blanket tariff based on Section 122 of the Trade Act 1974, and threatened to raise it further to 15%.

The sweeping scope of the investigations has drawn scrutiny over their feasibility and rationale among trade experts.

The U.S. Trade Representative will hold hearings on the investigations from April 28 to May 1 — an “unrealistically short” timeline given the breadth of countries under scrutiny, said Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at Hinrich Foundation.

Taking aim at European Union, which has enacted its own legislative framework prohibiting forced-labor practices, while sparing countries with significantly weaker…