U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will discuss the Trump Administration’s 2026 trade agenda at upcoming hearings held by the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. In light of USTR’s recent announcement of new Section 301 trade investigations, those committees may want to follow up on his statement to the House Appropriations Committee last week: ”In President Trump’s first term, the Section 301 tool was used to great effect.”
His comment referred to tariffs imposed following a 2017 Section 301 investigation into China’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property, and Innovation. The goal of the investigation was to reduce or eliminate China’s unfair practices in these areas. Subsequent reviews cast substantial doubt on the effectiveness of this action.
- A 2018 USTR update on the impact of its Section 301 action concluded, “As the evidence gathered in this update demonstrates, China fundamentally has not altered its acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation, and indeed appears to have taken further unreasonable actions in recent months.”
- According to the 2019 Economic Report of the President, “The United States’ largest trade action of 2018 was its imposition of import tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods from China in three tranches (2017 import value). Rather than changing its practices, China announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.”
- The 2021 Report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission found that China was engaging in “broadened state intervention in the economy to achieve the CCP’s economic, social, and political goals.”
- The Biden Administration’s 2024 four-year review of the Section 301 tariffs concluded, “China has not eliminated many of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices. Instead of pursuing fundamental reform, the Chinese government largely took superficial measures aimed at addressing negative perceptions of its technology transfer-related acts, policies, and practices. At the same time, China has persisted and even become more aggressive, particularly through cyber intrusions and cybertheft, in its attempts to acquire and absorb foreign technology, which further burden or restrict U.S. commerce.”
Government reviews have repeatedly documented the ongoing failure of Section 301 tariffs to change China’s behavior. Ways and Means and Finance Committee Members may want to ask Amb. Greer why we should expect new Section 301 actions launched by USTR to fare any better.