Every week, the USTR website will explore a new trade topic, with background information and current trade data. On July 21 and 22, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk will be in Singapore at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial meeting - so this week's trade topic is U.S. trade relations with APEC member economies.
COMBATING FORCED LABOR IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: Today, the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, launched Section 301 investigations into acts, policies, and practices of 60 economies relating to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.
March 12, 2026
WASHINGTON — Today, the United States Trade Representative initiated investigations of 60 economies under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974. The investigations will determine whether acts, policies, and practices of each of these economies related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. The list of economies subject to these investigations—60 of the largest trading partners of the United States—is below.
March 12, 2026
WASHINGTON – United States Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer will travel to Paris, France, on March 15-16, together with Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, to meet with Vice Premier He Lifeng of the People’s Republic of China.
PROTECTING U.S. MANUFACTURING SECTORS AND JOBS: Today, the United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, launched Section 301 investigations into acts, policies, and practices of various economies relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors.
March 11, 2026
WASHINGTON — Today, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced the initiation of investigations regarding the acts, policies, and practices of various economies under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 relating to structural excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors. The investigations will determine whether those acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.
General Counsel Jennifer Thornton advises Ambassador Greer and USTR’s regional and functional offices on all legal matters, in addition to overseeing more than 40 attorneys and trade policy analysts within USTR’s Office of the General Counsel and the Interagency Center on Trade Implementation, Monitoring, and Enforcement (ICTIME).
March 05, 2026
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Mexican Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard announced the first round of bilateral discussions in preparation for the Joint Review of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Published in The Hill
March 2, 2026
Published in the Financial Times
December 22, 2025
The year 2025 will be remembered as the year of the tariff, regardless of one’s economic ideology. International trade is neither good nor bad — it just is. The real question is whether trade patterns serve the national interest. For President Donald Trump and his administration, that means a trade policy that accelerates re-industrialisation.
