



Trump’s theatrical tariff tactics: His Section 301 probe targets should keep watch and share notes
The US government’s trade lawyers are working overtime. So what if the work in question requires more imagination than it does expertise?Over the past fortnight, investigations into 16 countries for supposed manufacturing “excess capacity” have been launched under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. The office of US Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer also announced that similar probes would begin into forced labour practices in 60 countries.
Several of America’s largest trade partners, including the EU, Japan, India and Mexico, will be on both lists.One can safely assume that these 76 inquiries will proceed at a somewhat speedier rate than is usual and the answers will arrive with the same breathtaking rapidity at which the questions were asked. An even safer assumption is that these answers will just happen to be the ones that the Trump administration wants. The White House is moving with commendable efficiency here, as it tends to do whenever it sets out to destroy institutions.
Section 301 investigations serve a real purpose—identifying countries that are deliberately setting out to violate trading norms—and generally take months. Their purpose was to remove trade barriers, not raise them. It’s perverse to employ them as post-hoc scaffolding for a policy that’s already been declared unconstitutional.The entire world can see what’s going on.
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