Washington, March 13 (IANS) The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has opened investigations into 60 economies, including South Korea, China and Japan, to determine whether their governments have taken sufficient steps to ban the importation of goods produced with forced labour.

The office said the investigations were initiated under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to roll out new tariffs to replace the country-specific emergency tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down last month, reports Yonhap news agency.

The investigations will determine whether acts, policies and practices of the economies related to the failure to impose and enforce a ban on imports produced with forced labor are “unreasonable” or “discriminatory,” and burden or restrict U.S. commerce, the office said.

The countries subject to the investigations include South Korea, China, Japan, India, Indonesia, Britain, Australia, Canada and Taiwan.

“Despite the international consensus against forced labor, governments have failed to impose and effectively enforce measures banning goods produced with forced labor from entering their markets,” USTR Jamieson Greer was quoted as saying in a release.

“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labor,” he added.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration opened a trade inquiry into South Korea, China, Japan and 13 other economies to uncover what Greer called “unfair” trade practices related to “structural” excess capacity and production, a move that might result in tariffs.

The inquiry was also launched under Section 301, a provision that allows the USTR to investigate unfair foreign trade practices on a country-by-country basis.

—IANS

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