Jamieson Greer is the United States Trade Representative, a member of President Trump's Cabinet. The Senate confirmed him as the 20th Trade Representative in February 2025. He previously served as chief of staff to Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer during Trump's first term, was a partner at a Washington law firm whose practice focused on international trade and national security, and earlier served in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps.
Case
Businesses and 25 states say Trump's 10% and 12.5% Section 301 tariffs on 60 economies are a pretext to revive struck-down global tariffs. The administration says they lawfully answer forced-labor import failures. As of September 30, 2026, no court has ruled.
Role at the time: U.S. Trade Representative, in a USTR press release announcing the final action
Response to this claim
USTR determined on June 2, 2026 that each of 60 economies' failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, and on July 23, 2026, at the President's specific direction, imposed additional duties of 10% or 12.5% as the appropriate action under Section 301 to obtain the elimination of that practice.
“Today's action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere. I am encouraged by the trading partners who have moved quickly to adopt forced labor import prohibitions, and look forward to ensuring their effective enforcement.”
Relative to the Section 301 forced-labor tariffs, Greer presents them as a justified response to a human rights abuse and a trade distortion and as a way to push trading partners toward import bans. That defends the tariffs as a proper use of Section 301, so we used Defended or excused. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, because he also says he will watch enforcement, but that sentence adds no condition to his support.
Role at the time: U.S. Trade Representative, in a prepared statement to the Senate Finance Committee
Response to this claim
USTR determined on June 2, 2026 that each of 60 economies' failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, and on July 23, 2026, at the President's specific direction, imposed additional duties of 10% or 12.5% as the appropriate action under Section 301 to obtain the elimination of that practice.
“USTR has also investigated its top 60 U.S. trading partners for their failure to adopt and effectively enforce an import ban on goods produced with forced labor. On June 2, USTR published a report on this investigation, which found that these countries' failure to adopt, and effectively enforce, a forced labor import prohibition is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce. I also proposed responsive action to incentivize our trading partners to do more to combat the scourge of forced labor, including the imposition of additional tariffs of 10 and 12.5 percent depending upon the strength of their existing measures to address this issue.”
Relative to the Section 301 forced-labor tariffs, Greer states USTR's findings and describes the duties as a way to prompt other countries to act, which defends the action as a legitimate use of Section 301. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, because the same statement says the specific authorities have changed but the strategy has not, but that sentence adds no condition to his defense of the action.
Statement dates: July 22, 2026 to July 23, 2026
Statement dates: July 22, 2026 to July 23, 2026
