WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today welcomed the Trump administration’s decision to launch Section 301 investigations into structural excess capacity and overproduction in global manufacturing sectors. The investigations, announced yesterday by U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will examine whether policies and practices in China, the European Union, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, and India burden or restrict U.S. commerce.
“Section 301 is an important tool for relief against foreign policies that prejudice American producers,” said Jon Toomey, President of CPA. “Nonetheless, what domestic producers want first and foremost is a viable and secure home market. 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.”
CPA noted that U.S. tariff authorities serve different strategic purposes. Section 232 tariffs, which are global by default, are designed to promote economic self-reliance and stimulate domestic investment in industries critical to national security. Section 301, by contrast, is primarily a tool of leverage—intended to compel changes in foreign government practices that harm U.S. exports to a foreign market or multinationals operating in that market.
Unlike Section 232 actions, Section 301 tariffs must remain tied to specific foreign practices and are subject to periodic review, which can create uncertainty for domestic producers. Additionally, because Section 301 investigations are country-specific rather than global, they risk creating “whack-a-mole” import patterns in which production simply shifts to jurisdictions not covered by the action.
“There will never be a truly level global playing field,” Toomey added. “Higher tariffs on China and other countries pursuing strategies to displace American producers are certainly warranted. But policymakers should recognize the limits of country-specific actions and focus primarily on protecting the U.S. market from excessive import penetration. China alone has more than one hundred potential transshipment partners across the developing world. Without a strategy that addresses imports from all sources, production can easily migrate to countries not initially included in the investigation.”
CPA also pointed to recent evidence of this dynamic. On December 15, 2025—just one month after USTR signed a new trade agreement with Korea—Chinese automaker Polestar began delivering its Polestar 4 electric vehicle to U.S. customers. While assembled in Korea, the vehicle contains approximately 92 percent Chinese content, illustrating how production can shift locations without meaningfully reducing dependence on Chinese manufacturing.
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