This week’s episode of The Big 3 with CPA economists Mihir Torsekar and Andrew Rechenberg centered on three major trade investigations that go to the heart of CPA’s industrial policy agenda: global overcapacity, forced labor, and revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations status.

First, the crew examined the Section 301 overcapacity investigation, arguing that China remains the central driver of global industrial excess, but that countries such as Vietnam, India, Mexico, and Egypt also function as conduits or secondary sources of distortion. They pointed to enormous overcapacity in sectors like steel and solar, warning that subsidized production is flooding world markets and undercutting U.S. manufacturers.

Second, the hosts turned to forced labor, describing it as a hidden production subsidy that lowers labor costs, suppresses fair competition, and is deeply intertwined with the same supply chains driving overcapacity, particularly in Chinese polysilicon and solar production.

Finally, they discussed CPA’s comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission on revoking China’s permanent normal trade relations status. The team argued that China’s entry into the WTO devastated American manufacturing communities, and they highlighted CPA modeling showing that moving China to Column 2 tariff treatment could generate large GDP gains, create jobs, and begin correcting a decades-old policy mistake.