Congressional Research Service, Enforcing U.S. Trade Laws – Section 301 and China, August 2, 2018

Overview

On August 14, 2017, President Trump directed the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR to determine whether it should launch a Section 301 investigation into any of China's laws, policies, practices, or actions that may be unreasonable or discriminatory and that may be harming American intellectual property rights (IPR), innovation, or technology development. On August 18, 2017, the USTR said it would launch a Section 301 case against China’s IPR policies. On March 22, 2018, the USTR said it would take action to address four Chinese IPR policies deemed harmful to the U.S. economy. On July 6, the United States imposed 25% ad valorem tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods, and on August 23 it raised tariffs on an additional $16 billion worth of Chinese products. China retaliated each time with comparable tariffs on U.S. imports. The United States has threated to increase tariffs on an additional $467 billion worth of Chinese goods.