U.S. expected to delay new excess capacity tariff announcement until after Trump-Xi summit: report

According to a report, the U.S. administration intends to delay the announcement of new tariffs targeting countries with alleged excess manufacturing capacity until after the upcoming summit between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 24. The reason for the delay remains unclear, despite the administration's prior plans to release a trade report recommending a 7.5 percent tariff on Chinese products.

The Trump administration initiated a trade investigation into China, South Korea, Japan, and 13 other nations in March, aiming to uncover unfair trade practices related to structural excess capacity and production. In the same month, another investigation was launched into 60 economies, including South Korea, China, and Japan, to assess whether their governments had taken adequate measures to ban the importation of goods produced with forced labor.

The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced final decisions to impose new tariffs up to 12.5 percent on South Korea, Japan, and 58 other countries due to forced labor concerns in July. The administration has been utilizing Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act to implement new duties, aiming to replace the suppressed country-specific emergency tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court in February.