The final frequently invoked United States trade remedy is Section 301. This trade remedy is famous around the world - foreign businesspeople who may know nothing else about trade remedies will generally have heard of Section 301.

Section 301 provides the legal mechanism through which the United States Trade Representative pursues a variety of United States trade policy objectives. If the United States wants to pursue a market access issue with some foreign country, or wishes to complain about the lax enforcement of intellectual property rights, Section 301 and the related procedures are often the way the issue will be pursued.

This legal provision also provides a formal way for United States domestic industries to petition for some issue to be put on the trade policy agenda. If informal consultations with USTR do not succeed, United States domestic interests can use Section 301 to politicize the issue, and try to pressure USTR to take their interests more seriously.

Section 301 has a long history. This chapter briefly introduces Section 301 and describes how the proceedings work. Since 2000 WTO decision made clear that sanctions pursuant to Section 301 almost certainly would violate WTO obligations, the future use of Section 301 is less certain. The ability of the United States to use this law as the basis for making a credible threat to invoke sanctions has been limited. But there have been various proposals to make changes to Section 301 to find ways to impose effective sanctions in spite of the WTO finding, and by doing so to restore the credibility of Section 301 as a trade remedy.

Source: Business Guide to Trade Remedies in the United States: Anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards legislation practices and procedures