26. Trade · Minor · Contested — excluded from counts
Target bad-faith Chinese firms individually instead of blanket tariffs
Printed page 815 26. Trade · from “The Case for Free Trade”
“Use a target, not a blanket. There should be actions against Chinese firms that are known to have engaged in unfair trade practices such as intellectual property theft. Rather than blanket tariffs or non-tariff barriers aimed at entire Chinese industry sectors, firms that act in bad faith should be targeted individually.”
What has happened
- Not started
The blanket was used, not the target. Sector-wide action against Chinese industry ran throughout the window: the Section 301 action on China's targeting of the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors (fees on Chinese-built vessels, 2025-04-23 and modified 2025-11-13), the Section 301 action on China's semiconductor industry (2025-12-29), a second four-year review of the existing China Section 301 tariffs opened 2026-05-06, and Section 232 regimes reaching semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, polysilicon and unmanned aircraft systems. Firm-level instruments exist alongside them rather than instead of them — Commerce added entities to the Entity List on 2025-03-28, 2025-09-16, 2025-10-09 and 2026-08-24 and extended end-user controls to affiliates of listed entities on 2025-09-30 — but they are export controls layered on top of the sectoral tariffs, not a substitute for them, and the Quote asks for targeting "rather than blanket tariffs or non-tariff barriers aimed at entire Chinese industry sectors".
- USTR: Notice of Action — China's Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Targeting of the Semiconductor Industry for Dominance
- USTR: Notice of Modification of Section 301 Action — China's Targeting of the Maritime, Logistics, and Shipbuilding Sectors for Dominance
- BIS rule: Expansion of End-User Controls To Cover Affiliates of Certain Listed Entities
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Contested Recommendation from “The Case for Free Trade”, and the direct opposite of the Fair Trade Position’s #2075 (expand tariffs to all Chinese products and raise rates to block imports). The same Section 301 and Section 232 record is Evidence for the Fair Trade item’s direction of travel and contrary Evidence here; neither Status was moved because the other Position advanced.
- The Entity List additions are recorded as contrary Evidence rather than supporting Evidence deliberately. They are firm-level, which is the shape the Quote wants, but they are export controls added on top of the sectoral tariffs; under §3b’s “progress is measured on this ask”, an ask phrased as “X rather than Y” is not advanced by more X while Y grows.
- The Supreme Court’s decision of 2026-02-20 ended the IEEPA duties on all Chinese goods (recorded at #2075 and #2109), which removed one blanket. It was a court order, not a choice, and the sectoral Section 232 and 301 regimes it left standing are what this Quote objects to.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- Blanket tariffs and non-tariff barriers on Chinese industry sectors
- ID
- 2123