Trump Admin has begun trade investigations as a way to impose tariffs
By: Bart Jansen (USA TODAY via MSN)
Beavis struck out. Now it is Butt Head's turn.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has begun investigating alleged unfair trade practices among trading partners around the world, to potentially impose tariffs that would replace the emergency tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down.
"The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in announcing the investigations of alleged overproduction of goods in China, Mexico and Europe.
The investigations are one way for President Donald Trump to continue collecting tariffs. Trump has argued tariffs are crucial to the country for government funding and threatening to impose them as a way to pressure countries to reach trade deals and companies to manufacture their products in the United States.
The economies subject to these investigations are: China, Mexico, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Japan and India.
Greer said U.S. manufacturing faces challenges because trading partners are producing more than they can consume domestically.
"This overproduction displaces existing U.S. domestic production or prevents investment and expansion in U.S. manufacturing production that otherwise would have been brought online," Greer said.
Public comments about the investigations are due by April 15 and the agency will hold hearings beginning May 5.
What did the Supreme Court decide?
The Supreme Court ruled Feb. 20 that Trump wasn’t authorized to impose tariffs under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which the president ordered in April 2025. Trump called the decision disappointing but said he could find other ways to impose tariffs.
The high court's decision left a $3 trillion hole in government finances over the next decade from anticipated collections on imports and reduced payments on debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Thousands of companies have filed lawsuits seeking refunds after paying the unauthorized tariffs. The U.S. Court of International Trade is weighing how to manage an estimated $166 billion in refunds from about 330,000 importers. Customs and Border Protection official Brandon Lord told the court that the "process will require minimal submission from importers."
But other statutes would allow Trump to impose tariffs, as he has on steel and aluminum, which weren’t affected by the decision.
Immediately after the decision, Trump imposed 10% tariffs worldwide under the 1974 Trade Act. But that type of tariff lasts for only 150 days, unless Congress votes to extend the policy.
The Commerce Department could also mount investigations for tariffs
Another option for tariffs falls under another section of the Trade Act, which is what the administration announced it was pursuing March 11. The law allows Trump to impose tariffs after the U.S. trade representative investigates alleged unfair trade practices.
Another way for Trump to impose tariffs falls under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, if the Commerce Department conducts an investigation and finds trade could hurt national security.
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Trump could explain that tariffs are really a subsidy for domestic production. Only those consuming imports pay the tariffs so it really is a targeted tax on consumptive behavior. The policy is sound. (IMO reviving a productive industrial economy is the only way to address the national debt.) But Trump may not possess an understanding of his own policies. For Trump it may just be about blind political rhetoric and an insatiable need to destroy things.