The Trump administration on Wednesday launched a fresh "unfair trade practice" probe against its 16 trading partners, including India and China. The decision is seen as an effort to restore the tariff pressure that was declared illegal by the US Supreme Court in January. As per the official announcement by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, the administration will conduct the probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the authority to take relevant steps against the trading partners in case of any unfair practices.

The probe could add fresh tariffs on several trading partners of the US, including India, China, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland, and Norway. However, Canada was not mentioned as a part of the investigation despite being the second-largest trading partner of the US.

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Greer, in his statement, said that the US will no longer sacrifice its interest, adding that the current administration is determined to provide high-paying jobs to the Americans. "Our view is that key trading partners have developed production capacity that is really untethered from the market incentives of domestic and global demand," Greer was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

"The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us. Today’s investigations underscore President Trump’s commitment to reshoring critical supply chains and create good-paying jobs for American workers across our manufacturing sectors," the US Trade Representative said in his official statement.

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India-US Ties

Earlier in January, a "historic" trade deal was announced between the US and India, with the Trump administration agreeing to reduce the tariffs from 50 per cent to 18 per cent. However, the US pointed out that the deal was announced after New Delhi agreed to stop buying Russian oil.