Kamal Ghorui
India is examining the United States’ move to initiate Section 301 investigations against a group of 16 trading partners and will take an appropriate position after analysing the legal and economic aspects, PTI reported citing an official on Friday.On March 11, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced probes into countries including India, China, Japan and the European Union to address practices such as forced labour and manufacturing overcapacity that Washington believes are hurting its domestic industry.The investigation spans multiple sectors such as steel, aluminium, automobiles, batteries, electronics, chemicals, machinery, semiconductors and solar modules.The countries and regions under review include China, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan, India and the 27-member EU bloc.“We are studying what is there in their note. We are looking at it from all perspectives. Both from the legal perspective as well as the economic angle which is being mentioned there. India is evaluating the documents,” the official said.The development comes after the US Supreme Court ruled against the tariffs imposed earlier during President Donald Trump’s tenure. Following the verdict, Trump had said Washington had other options to reintroduce tariff pressure.In line with that approach, the United States has imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all countries for a period of 150 days from February 24.The Section 301 process will assess whether measures such as industrial subsidies, expansion of state-backed manufacturing, operations of state-owned enterprises, barriers to market access, currency practices or weak domestic demand have contributed to excess global manufacturing capacity affecting US trade.If such practices are established, Washington could consider countermeasures including higher tariffs, quantitative restrictions or other trade curbs.Public consultations on the investigations will begin on March 17, when dockets open for submissions from companies, industry associations and governments.Sources indicated that the probe has a sharper focus on China due to concerns around forced labour and sector-specific overcapacity that could influence global trade flows.
