Section 301 is a powerful tool for addressing foreign policies that distort global markets and disadvantage American producers. When foreign governments explicitly pursue overproduction and then export the resulting surplus into the United States, the effect is to displace domestic output and deter new investment in American manufacturing.
The overall goods and services deficit number for January looked pretty good – coming in at $54.4 billion, its lowest monthly point in years. But when services are stripped from the equation, the goods trade looks like it has returned to level footing. January’s goods deficit was $81.7 billion, according to Thursday’s trade data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Section 301 actions against a particular country or group of countries are more likely to merely shift international supply chains as opposed to growing domestic productive output.
The free trade, foreign policy apparatus on Capitol Hill is openly advocating for the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), with senior committee leaders from both parties coming out in favor of it during a March 3 Center for Strategic and International Studies event about the trade deal’s future.
Cheap imports shaved prices on some goods but never made Americans richer. Wage losses and job destruction outweighed any discounts.
On Capitol Hill, the defense narrative clearly gets legislators’ attention. It remains the surest way to get Members of Congress thinking about reindustrialization and rebuilding domestic supply chains.
It was no surprise that the 2025 goods deficit broke another record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) numbers showed recently. The year-ending goods deficit was $1.24 trillion, up from $1.21 trillion in 2024, with the monthly deficit for December looking like historic averages, nearly $100 billion. Nothing seems to stop America’s appetite for imports.
For the first time, the new portal provides the American public with detailed access to reported foreign funding, including gifts and contracts from entities designated as “entities of concern” on nine federal government watchlists.
CPA urges the administration to move swiftly to deploy Section 232 investigations through the U.S. Department of Commerce as the most durable and effective tool available to restore American industrial capacity.
President Trump has made American reindustrialization and reshoring central to his economic policy agenda. Reviving American manufacturing enjoys broad public support and has increasingly become a bipartisan priority.
