The Trump administration is expected to announce new trade investigations Wednesday into what it considers unfair trading practices by other countries, as it works to resurrect a system of tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The investigations will be carried out under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law that allows the United States to impose tariffs on other countries in response to certain practices. The administration is required to carry out an investigation of the practices and hold consultations with foreign governments before it can impose the import taxes.
The inquiries will be carried out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and focus on several issues, each of which could result in tariffs on a number of countries, the people said.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One prominent issue is expected to be so-called excess capacity in foreign manufacturing, a label that the administration has used to refer to countries that subsidize their factory sector and produce more than their own people buy. The administration will also look at trade practices including taxes on digital services, the use of forced labor and currency manipulation, one person said.
The trade representative’s office previously promised to begin investigating a variety of trade issues, including excess capacity, forced labor, pharmaceutical pricing, discrimination against U.S. tech companies, ocean pollution and unfair trading practices for seafood and rice, saying that the investigations would be carried out on an accelerated timeline.
In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” last month, Jamieson Greer, the trade representative, said he would open investigations related to issues like excess industrial capacity, which would cover many countries in Asia that “make more than they can consume.”
“We had to look at backup plans, and we found ways to really reconstruct what we’re doing,” he added.
The administration is pursuing a patchwork of actions to replace the tariffs that were recently struck down by the Supreme Court. The Trump administration has put a 10 percent global tariff in place, but that is set to expire after 150 days if Mr. Trump does not get congressional approval.
The Supreme Court greatly curtailed Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs last month when it ruled that the president had exceeded his legal authority in using an emergency law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to issue tariffs. The president had used the law to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China for their role in funneling fentanyl to the United States. He drew on it again during “Liberation Day” in April, when he announced a slew of import taxes on foreign countries that were ostensibly directed at balancing trade.
The Supreme Court ruling does not affect other trade statutes that the president can use to impose tariffs, albeit less flexibly. That includes Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which Mr. Trump has used to impose the 10 percent, 150-day global tariff. It also includes Section 301 and another national-security-related statute, Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which is under control of the Commerce Department.
Commerce Department employees have been looking into new trade investigations using Section 232 on industries including batteries, chemicals, plastics and equipment for telecommunications and the electrical grid.
Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade.
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