Office of the United States Trade Representative Invites Public Comment on Unfair and Non-Reciprocal Trade

On February 25, 2025, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published a request for public comments to aid its examination of unfair trade practices by foreign countries and economies and harm to the United States caused by non-reciprocal trade arrangements.¹ USTR further detailed how these comments will assist in its recommendations to President Trump to remedy unfair practices through reciprocal tariffs or other measures.² U.S. companies that have been harmed by unfair trade practices must submit comments by March 11, 2025. 

USTR’s request for comments reflects its commitment to meeting the April 1, 2025 deadline imposed by the Administration’s America First Trade Policy and taking a close look at non-reciprocal trade as required by the Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs Presidential Memorandum.³ Section 2(c) of the America First Trade Policy Presidential Memorandum instructs USTR, in conjunction with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing, to review and identify unfair trade practices by other countries and recommend responsive remedies.⁴ USTR will consider information obtained through these comments in its report to POTUS.

Similarly, the Reciprocal Trade and Tariffs Memorandum directs USTR and the U.S. Department of Commerce, in consultation with additional federal agencies, to take all necessary actions to investigate the harm to the United States following the submission of the April 1, 2025 report.⁵ Following the initiation of these investigations, USTR will submit a report detailing proposed remedies to the President.⁶ The timeline for this second report recommending remedial action and the contents may not be made public, so it is particularly important for interested parties to ensure that their voices are heard earlier in this process. 

USTR is seeking the requested comments to provide relevant information concerning unfair trade practices relevant to USTR’s review and potential investigation. Generally, comments should provide information relating to any unfair trade practice by a foreign country or economy with respect to a non-reciprocal trade arrangement.⁷ Importantly, relevant information may be wide-ranging pursuant to USTR’s definition of “unfair trade practices” which covers “an expansive range of practices, such as policies, measures, or barriers that undermine or harm U.S. production, or exports, or a failure by a country to take action to address a non-market policy or practice in a way which harms the United States.”⁸ USTR is specifically requesting information identifying the country or economy at issue, description of the unfair trade practices of that country including a brief explanation of how the practice operates, and a description of the impact on the interested party or the United States as a whole.

Although USTR stated information concerning unfair or non-reciprocal practices by any country will be considered, information regarding countries or economies with the largest trade deficits in goods with the United States is specially requested.⁹ These countries and economies include G20 countries, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.¹⁰ 

Although USTR clarified that this request for comment should not be understood as the sole opportunity for interested parties to provide information, it is not clear when or what other opportunities parties may have.¹¹ For U.S. manufacturers competing with unfairly low-priced imports, this is a key opportunity to comment on how proposed tariffs can help their industries and communities.   

Buchanan has a team of international trade and national security attorneys, and government relations professionals ready to help U.S. manufacturers with U.S. trade remedy laws and trade policy.