After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down much of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime in February, he threatened to use other legal powers to reimpose import duties on the rest of the world. The world got the first indication of how sweeping those measures would be last week, when the U.S. opened two trade investigations on dozens of countries. Together, the two Section 301 probes—the first on “excess manufacturing capacity,” the second on not doing enough to stop the import of goods made using forced labor—cover 60 different economies, including key trading partners like China, India, Mexico and the European Union.
On Monday, the Chinese commerce ministry condemned the investigations as “extremely unilateral, arbitrary and discriminatory, and a typical protectionist act”.
“The U.S. has once again abused the 301 investigation process to override domestic law over international rules,” a Chinese spokesperson said. “We urge the U.S. to immediately correct its wrong practices, and meet China halfway.”
U.S. and Chinese officials are currently meeting in Paris to hash out the agenda for a meeting between Trump and China President Xi Jinping in early April, even as Trump said he might postpone his visit in an interview with the Financial Times, and demanded Beijing help protect ships traveling through the closed Strait of Hormuz.
