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The US has targeted 60 trading partners, including the UK, the EU and Canada, with new investigations into their practices around forced labour that could allow the Trump administration to impose fresh tariffs.
The US trade representative’s office, in a filing late on Thursday evening, said it would launch probes under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that would focus on whether countries had adequate rules against importing goods made with forced labour.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said the investigations would also determine “how the failure to eradicate these abhorrent practices impacts US workers and businesses”.
The probes could help President Donald Trump shore up his tariff wall after the Supreme Court ruled many of his previous sweeping levies were illegal.
These trade investigations come on the heels of similar probes announced by the US earlier this week into whether American trading partners had “excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors”.
But the studies into forced labour cover far more countries, including the UK and Canada, which were omitted from the earlier probe.
The US has rules in place banning the imports of goods made with forced labour. It also has restrictions on imports from the Xinjiang region of China, where it has accused Beijing of using forced labour.
Taken together, the trade actions could help the Trump administration raise duties back to the level they were at before the US’s top court ruled the president could not use emergency powers to impose tariffs.
The administration moved immediately after the ruling to impose a blanket 10 per cent tariff on almost all trading partners to replace the levies that were deemed illegal. But the legislation used to impose the new tariffs only allows them to stay in place for 150 days.
Greer told reporters on Wednesday that his “target” was to conclude his fresh investigations ahead of the expiration of the stopgap levies.
He added that the administration would launch further probes into topics including digital services trade and drug pricing.