On Wednesday, March 11, 2026, United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) Greer announced a new investigation under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 relating to “structural excess capacity and production in certain manufacturing sectors.” According to the Federal Register Notice, “[k]ey trading partners have developed production capacity untethered from the incentives of domestic and global demands…lead[ing] to [ ] over production and large or persistent trade surpluses as well as underutilized and unused capacity, in manufacturing sectors.”
A Section 301 investigation is initiated to determine whether unfair foreign practices such as an act, policy, or practice of a foreign country, are negatively impacting U.S. commerce. Under the first Trump Administration, Section 301 was used to impose additional tariffs on numerous goods originating from China.
The FRN cites to the following as sectors “plagued by excess capacity and production”:
- Aluminum
- Automobiles
- Batteries
- Cement
- Chemicals
- Electronics
- Energy goods
- Glass
- Machine tools
- Machinery
- Non-ferrous metals
- Paper
- Plastics
- Processed food and beverages
- Robotics
- Satellites
- Semiconductors
- Ships
- Solar Modules
- Steel
- Transportation equipment
The countries subject to this investigation include: China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India.
It is not clear from the FRN whether the Section 301 investigation will cover all aforementioned sectors for all countries or if the investigations will be conducted on a country-specific basis.
Comment Period
Interested parties may submit comments to USTR addressing the following:
- The acts, policies, and practices of each investigated economy creating or maintaining structural excess capacity or production in specific sectors.
- Whether the acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory.
- Whether the acts, policies, and practices burden or restrict U.S. commerce, and if so, the nature and level of the burden or restriction. This would include economic assessments of the burden or restriction.
- Whether the acts, policies, and practices are actionable under section 301(b) of the Trade Act, and what action, if any, should be taken, including tariff and non-tariff actions.
- Whether there are additional considerations for assessing acts, policies, and practices that contribute to structural excess capacity or production in manufacturing sectors.
Comments must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. EST on April 15, 2026.
Public Hearings
The Section 301 Committee will then convene a public hearing for each investigated economy beginning on May 5, 2026. Parties interested in testifying at a hearing must submit a request to appear via https://comments.ustr.gov/s/, following the instructions outlined in the Federal Register Notice. Requests to testify must be submitted by April 15, 2026.
What This Means For You
Interested parties should work with counsel to submit comments in response to the Federal Register Notice and should monitor for additional updates.
Section 301 investigations and tariffs were not the subject of the recent tariff litigation in front of the United Supreme Court in Learning Resources v. Trump. For additional information about that case, please see our blog post here. Because of this, any legal challenges to the Administration’s imposition of Section 301 tariffs will need to proceed through the Court of International Trade, to the Federal Circuit, and ultimately to the Supreme Court, if necessary, which will take months if not years to resolve.
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