In a recent Law360 article, Thompson Coburn International Trade partner Robert Shapiro shared his insights on proposed Section 301 tariffs targeting excess manufacturing capacity and the potential impact on U.S. trading relationships.
Robert said the tariffs should be viewed as part of the Trump administration’s broader strategy to gain leverage in negotiations with trading partners. “I think this is much more important in terms of being able to set up more of the global negotiations in different countries,” he said.
He noted that tariffs imposed under Section 301 not only create leverage but also give the administration flexibility to adjust duties as negotiations evolve. “I really see it more as laying the foundation to being able to do a whole bunch of different tariffs more easily,” said Robert.
While some trade agreements may limit how high duties can be raised, Robert said there still appears to be room for the administration to increase tariffs on certain products. He pointed to derivative goods made from key inputs that are already subject to Section 232 duties under the Trade Expansion Act.
“The question to me is whether there’s enough room in those agreements, to which I think there is, to go after some specific products if you wanted to,” said Robert. He explained that Section 301 “allows for a lot of nuance in doing different things” that don’t require the same kind of investigative process Section 232 requires for particular products.
Robert said that in the Section 232 context, applying those tariffs to derivative products “has been a challenge” for the Trump administration, so he views the incoming Section 301 tariffs as “a different route” to collect duties on those goods.
“I think 301 gives them more latitude than 232,” he said.
Read the full article here.
