March 11 (Reuters) – The United States on Wednesday said it was launching unfair trade practice investigations into 16 key trading partners, part of an urgent effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to restore tariffs recently struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court as illegal.
The probes are being conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the U.S. Trade Representative to impose tariffs or other retaliatory measures against trading partners determined to employ unfair trade practices.
The administration alleges the 16 all employ policies that disadvantage U.S. goods producers, resulting in all but one of them running substantial goods trade surpluses with the U.S.
Here are the 16 subject to the investigation:
Country/Area Goods trade Goods trade Change
surplus/defici surplus/defici ($ mln)
t t 2024 ($ mln)
2025 ($ mln)
European Union 218,750 235,874 -17,124
China 202,071 295,515 -93,444
Mexico 196,913 171,491 25,422
Vietnam 178,183 123,457 54,726
Taiwan 146,756 73,718 73,038
Thailand 71,856 45,492 26,364
Japan 63,883 69,392 -5,509
India 58,216 45,801 12,415
Korea, South 56,416 65,967 -9,551
Switzerland 34,304 38,283 -3,979
Malaysia 30,791 24,854 5,937
Indonesia 23,716 17,893 5,823
Cambodia 14,928 12,327 2,601
Bangladesh 7,146 6,063 1,083
Norway 2,069 2,043 26
Singapore -3,553 -1,855 -1,698
Source: U.S. Census Bureau trade data
(Reporting by Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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