USTR opens two-day tariff hearings

The Office of the United States Trade Representative opened public hearings Tuesday on Section 301 investigations covering 60 economies and their handling of forced-labor imports. (ustr.gov) The hearings started at 10 a.m. Eastern at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington and continue Wednesday, April 29. USTR said the proceedings are on the record, but not livestreamed, and outside cameras are barred. (ustr.gov) These are Section 301 cases, the trade law the United States uses to investigate foreign acts and policies it says burden U.S. commerce. USTR formally opened the forced-labor investigations on March 12 and asked for comments and hearing requests by April 15. (federalregister.gov) (ustr.gov) USTR says the target is not one country but 60 economies whose governments allegedly failed to ban or effectively police goods made with forced labor. The agency framed that as a trade distortion that undercuts U.S. producers and workers. (ustr.gov 1) (ustr.gov 2) The first day’s witness list shows how broad the fight could get. Panelists included Eric Gottwald of the Labor Advisory Committee, Martina Vandenberg of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, Sheela Ahluwalia of Transparentem, John Booher of the U.S. Chassis Manufacturers Coalition, Marty Davis of Cambria Company and John Schoenecker of the American Petroleum Institute. (ustr.gov) The hearings land in a much larger tariff scramble at the White House. On February 20, the Supreme Court ruled in *Learning Resources v. Trump* that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. (supreme.justia.com) (scotusblog.com) Hours later, President Donald Trump turned to Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and imposed a temporary 10% import duty for 150 days, starting February 24, while exempting categories including some energy, pharmaceuticals, electronics and USMCA-compliant goods from Canada and Mexico. (whitehouse.gov) (federalregister.gov) That helps explain why Section 301 matters now. It gives the administration a more established legal route to build product- or country-specific trade actions after the court shut down the emergency-power approach. (apnews.com) (ustr.gov) Another track is already moving in parallel. USTR also opened Section 301 investigations on March 11 into structural excess capacity in manufacturing sectors, signaling that forced labor is only one piece of a broader 2026 trade-enforcement push. (ustr.gov) For importers, the immediate calendar is tight. The forced-labor hearings can run as needed through May 1, and post-hearing rebuttal comments are due seven days after the last day of testimony. (federalregister.gov) What starts in a hearing room this week could end in new tariff recommendations from USTR. The transcript, not a livestream, will be the public record of how the administration builds that case. (ustr.gov)