The Trump administration is set to open hearings this week on two tariff investigations that could lead to a new round of import taxes on consumers as Americans keep grappling with the high cost of living. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will start the first hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday, examining whether 60 economies do enough to prohibit trade in products made with forced labor.
Those 60 economies account for 99% of U.S. imports, a scale that makes the case far broader than a typical trade dispute. In March, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said, "For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor," framing the effort as a fight over unfair competition as much as prices.
The second investigation comes next week and will look at whether 16 U.S. trading partners are overproducing goods. China, the European Union and Japan are among them, and the 16 economies account for 70% of U.S. imports, according to Erica York of the Tax Foundation. Taken together, the two cases give Washington a path to tariffs that would reach deep into the flow of goods entering the country.
The administration has brought both cases under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which authorizes tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in unjustifiable, unreasonable or discriminatory trade practices. That matters because the White House is looking for more durable tariffs after the Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20 that Trump had overstepped his authority by using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth.
Scott Bessent has said the U.S. government will replace its original tariff revenues with new import taxes, including ones imposed under Section 301, and Trump has said the new tariffs “are going to get us more money.” The levies already brought in $166 billion before the Supreme Court action, giving the administration a clear incentive to keep the money flowing even as businesses and consumers absorb the cost.
Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute said, "If you believe the Treasury secretary and the president, then the cake is already baked," adding that, "These investigations will result in tariffs that approximate what the Supreme Court overruled in February." That leaves the hearings less as a question of whether new tariffs are coming than how far Washington is willing to go in rebuilding the same policy through a different legal route.
