US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, Thursday, February 5, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | fake images
The United States on Thursday announced new trade investigations into 60 economies into what it called investigations aimed at determining whether these economies failed to curb imports of goods produced with forced labor.
The investigations, conducted under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, include China, the European Union, India and Mexico, according to a statement from the United States Trade Representative.
“Despite the international consensus against forced labor, governments have failed to effectively impose and enforce measures that prohibit goods produced with forced labor from entering their markets,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
“These investigations will determine whether foreign governments have taken sufficient steps to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor and how the failure to eradicate these abhorrent practices impacts American workers and businesses,” he said.
Section 301 allows the United States to impose tariffs on countries that have engaged in unfair trade practices without authorization from Congress, legal authority that Trump had used during his first term to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.
The new investigations could ultimately replace at least some of the reciprocal tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down last month.
The investigations landed as Bessent is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart, He Lifeng, in Paris this weekend to continue bilateral trade and economic talks.
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