The United States has opened a new investigation into several of its largest trading partners, including European Union, China and India, after the Supreme Court struck down a key part of President Donald Trump’s tariffs policies last month.
On Wednesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Section 301 investigation into unfair trade practices could result in new tariffs on countries such as China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Mexico as early as this summer.
The probe would allow the US government to impose import duties on goods from any country found to be engaging in unfair trade practices.
Greer said he hopes to complete the investigations before the temporary tariffs introduced by Trump in late February expire in July.
“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,” Greer said in the announcement.
The investigation also covers several other economies, including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Norway.
However, Canada the US’s second-largest trading partner was not listed among the countries targeted in the probe.
The move comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that tariffs imposed by Trump on numerous countries in April last year were unlawful.
Following the ruling, the president announced a new 10 percent global tariff and criticised the court’s decision, calling it “terrible” and labelling the justices who rejected his trade policy as “fools”.
A day later, Trump said the levy would rise to 15 percent. However, when the measure came into force, the actual rate applied remained at percent.
Since then, Trump and senior officials in his administration have indicated that the tariff will eventually increase to 15 percent.
The new investigation provides the Trump administration with an opportunity to rebuild its case for imposing tariffs and maintaining pressure on its trading partners.
The development also comes ahead as top US officials are set to meet their Chinese counterparts in Paris this weekend.
Those discussions are expected to help pave the way for a meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing later this month.
