U.S. President Donald Trump is rolling out new tools with the same protectionist goals after the Supreme Court ruled his sweeping global tariffs to be illegal. His administration wants the rebuilt wall of import taxes to mirror those Trump put on every major trading partner at the beginning of his second term.
But not all is as it was on April 2, 2025 ¡ª?or Liberation Day, as the president called it. To make tariffs more legally sound, many countries are subject to investigations under accusations of trade unfairness ¡ª with the most prominent two focused on forced-labor rules and excess industrial capacity.
The actions were brought under a legal authority known as Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Not all countries are targets of the probes, and when Trump¡¯s temporary 10% across-the-board tariffs expire at the end of July, some stand to gain a competitive edge with a lower rate than they had before. Others could end up worse off.
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