Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, speaks during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The U.S. on Thursday launched new trade investigations into 60 economies to determine whether they failed to curb imports of goods made with forced labor.
The probes, 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 impose and effectively enforce measures banning goods produced with forced labor from entering their markets,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.
“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 U.S. workers and businesses,” he said.
Section 301 permits the U.S. to impose tariffs on countries found to have engaged in unfair trade practices without congressional authorization — legal authority that Trump had used during his first term to levy duties on Chinese goods.
The forced-labor probes follow Section 301 investigations launched on Wednesday, targeting excess industrial capacity across more than a dozen economies that also included China, the EU and Mexico.
The new investigations will likely serve as an alternative route to replace at least some of the reciprocal tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down last month.
The latest probe also includes Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand and the U.K.
The investigations come as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng in Paris this weekend to continue bilateral trade and economic talks, and weeks ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“China will not view this as good news and will use the upcoming meeting in Paris to express its displeasure,” said Stephen Olson, senior visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and a former U.S. trade negotiator.
But both sides appear committed to keeping the Trump-Xi meeting on track, “I wouldn’t expect this to upset the apple cart,” Olson said.
“Launching new trade investigations right before the summit sends the wrong signal,” said Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization, a think-tank often seen as aligned with Beijing’s thinking.
“A unilateral approach is not going to work. Section 301 has been tried before, and what the two sides need now is to find a way to work together — including on what is happening in the Middle East,” he added.
The first Trump administration launched six Section 301 investigations, with probes into China and the European Union resulting in tariff hikes. The Biden administration also carried out Section 301 investigations, and two probes into Brazil and China remain ongoing.
