The Trump administration is launching a process to reverse tariffs struck down by the US Supreme Court
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On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump’s administration launched a trade investigation into excessive industries in 16 major trading partners in an effort to rebuild tariff pressure after the US Supreme Court struck down the basis of Trump’s trade policy last month.
Canada has not been named as one of the targets of the new investigation.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Section 301 investigation into unfair trade practices could lead to new tariffs imposed on China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mexico and South Korea this summer.
Other trading partners under investigation for excess capacity include Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Norway.
Trump and his team have made it clear that they want to replace the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenue after the Supreme Court’s February ruling — which ruled that the president’s attempt to use emergency powers to stop the tax was illegal — by using separate laws to establish new taxes.
US trade ambassador Jamieson Greer says Canada needs to accept increased tariffs as part of any trade deal with the Trump administration, including a possible renewal of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
In this case, the administration began an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which could eventually lead to new import duties.
But in a call Wednesday with reporters, Greer said he didn’t want to prejudge the outcome of the plan.
“The goal is always the same — the tools can change depending on, you know, the courts and other things,” Gerer said, stressing the goal was to protect American jobs.
Return of the tax drama
The start of Trump’s earlier tariff reversal process could invite a return to the game that rocked the global economy last year.
The tariffs since repealed have led to new deals with US trading partners — and it’s unclear what impact the new set of import tariffs will have on those deals.
Greer said the new investigation, long called for by administration officials, shouldn’t come as a surprise to merchants who trade with them and should stick to their agreements, though he stopped short of saying it would shield them from all of the new Section 301 taxes.
He said Trump is willing to pursue tariffs and “will find a way to deal with unfair trade practices. He will find a way to reduce our trade deficit. He will find a way to protect US manufacturing. We have many tools to do it,” Greer said.
After the US Supreme Court ruled that US President Donald Trump’s IEEPA tariffs were illegal last week, the return of tens of billions of dollars is suddenly on the table. But the decision doesn’t spell out a clear path to getting those refunds — and they have yet to be confirmed by the White House. Flexport, an American AI-powered logistics company, has launched a tax refund calculator to estimate potential refunds for companies. Their CEO Ryan Petersen joins Power & Politics to discuss why his company built the tool.
List of planned investigations
The government is looking at what it sees as persistent trade surpluses and policies such as subsidies and suppression of workers’ wages, among other things.
The administration also introduced a Section 301 investigation to prevent the importation of manufactured goods.
Gerer indicated that there could be more Section 301 investigations into issues such as digital service taxes, drug pricing and ocean pollution, among other possibilities. The US Department of Commerce has separate trade investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
There are timeline pressures to complete its investigation.
The administration has imposed a 10 percent tariff on imported goods under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, but those expire on July 24. Trump has said he plans to raise that import tax to 15 percent, but has not yet done so.
