Jamieson Greer of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said on the 2nd (local time) that the results of Section 301 investigations under U.S. trade law targeting dozens of countries, including Korea, will be announced within weeks. There are 16 investigations into excess production capacity and 60 into forced labor across economic actors, and Korea is subject to both.
Appearing on CNBC in the U.S. that day, Greer, asked about options to replace the tariff gap created by the Supreme Court's illegality ruling, said, "We are investigating specific unfair trade practices of each country and are looking into more than 70 countries," adding, "We will release the results report in the coming weeks."
He went on, "If we find unfair trade practices such as structural excess (production) capacity or forced labor, we will present our proposals on how to remedy them," explaining, "A tariff could be one of them."
Greer said, "While I cannot prejudge the outcome, unfair trade practices have persisted internationally," adding, "Our trade deficit is enormous and there has been extensive offshoring, so we really need the imposition of significant tariffs."
The USTR in March launched Section 301 investigations in two areas: "excess production" and "imports of products made with forced labor." Section 301 of the Trade Act authorizes the administration to respond to unfair foreign government policies and practices with measures such as imposing tariffs.
The Section 301 probe is intended to replace reciprocal tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled illegal in February. After the illegality ruling, the Donald Trump administration imposed a so-called "global tariff" of 10% on trading partners worldwide under Section 122 of the Trade Act. Because the imposition period is 150 days, through late July, it is expected that tariffs under the Section 301 investigation will fill the gap.