“Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. § 2411 (the ‘Trade Act’), permits the U.S. Trade Representative (‘USTR’) to take all ‘appropriate and feasible action’ to ‘obtain the elimination’ of any ‘unreasonable or discriminatory’ foreign trade practice that ‘burdens or restricts United States commerce.’ To invoke that authority, USTR must first pass through a gauntlet of procedural safeguards. See id. §§ 2411-2414.”
“Pursuant to Section 307 of the Act, and subject to far fewer procedural requirements, USTR may also ‘modify or terminate’ a tariff action taken under Section 301 upon a finding that (as relevant here) the initial action is ‘no longer appropriate.’ 19 U.S.C. § 2417(a)-(b). In 2018, USTR relied on its modification authority to increase ten-fold the scope of its original Section 301 action, which had imposed duties on $50 billion in imports from China, to impose new duties of up to 25% on up to $550 billion in imports from China—virtually the entire U.S.-China trade portfolio.”
“The question presented is:”
“Whether USTR’s streamlined authority under Section 307 to ‘modify’ an existing tariff action confers on the agency essentially unlimited power to expand the scope of that initial action, as reflected in the ten-fold expansion challenged here.”
