, Columnist
The Theatre of the Absurd in Trump’s Trade Fight
The new trade investigations are built on legal fiction.
Photographer: Megan Varner/BloombergThe US government’s trade lawyers are working overtime. So what if the work in question requires more imagination than it does expertise?
Over the past fortnight, investigations into 16 countries for supposed manufacturing “excess capacity” have been launched under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. The office of US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also announced that similar probes would begin into forced labor practices in 60 countries. Several of America’s largest trading partners, including the European Union, Japan, India and Mexico, will be on both lists.