Major U.S. allies and trading partners have agreed to work together to confront government-backed industrial overproduction, expanding international support for the Trump administration’s campaign against trade practices that threaten domestic manufacturing and jobs.
Fourteen economies joined the United States in a joint ministerial statement announced Wednesday, pledging to develop coordinated responses in automobiles and electric vehicles, batteries, chemicals, foundational semiconductors, and solar panels.
The signatories include every Group of Seven country, the European Union, Mexico, South Korea, India, Australia, Argentina, Poland, and Türkiye. Senior officials began work on the initiative on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Trade Committee.
Although the statement does not name China, Beijing’s industrial policies are the principal target. The sectors identified are central to international concerns about Chinese subsidies and expanding exports, while the document’s warnings about concentrated production and export restrictions reflect growing concern about dependence on Chinese suppliers.
The agreement follows discussions at last week’s G20 trade ministerial in Milwaukee, where the United States pressed for collective action against excess industrial capacity and non-market economic practices. Ministers failed to reach a consensus on that issue, but the new statement establishes a coalition willing to pursue cooperation outside the full G20.
The statement represents a major policy win for U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who has pressed economic partners to cooperate on a trade agenda aimed at restoring a sustainable balance in global commerce and confronting predatory mercantilist practices by China and other countries.
The governments described a problem extending beyond ordinary competition among manufacturers. They pointed to production that persistently exceeds global demand and would not exist under market conditions, sustained by government policies or interventions.
Such practices distort prices and production patterns, discourage market-based investment, undermine exports from competing economies, and obstruct innovation and new entrants, the statement said.
The signatories also warned that concentrating production in one country can deepen other economies’ dependence on its products, leaving them vulnerable to economic coercion, including arbitrary export restrictions.
“Left unchecked, these issues will continue to cripple domestic industries, displace local production, and hinder our ability to raise the standard of living for workers and their families,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in the announcement.
Greer said the Trump administration would continue working with trading partners to defend American industries and workers against distortions created by non-market policies.
The statement calls on countries to eliminate structural excess capacity, including by ending policies that distort markets and perpetuate overproduction. It acknowledges that an increasing number of governments are already taking defensive action and says those efforts can become more effective through cooperation, information sharing, and complementary measures.
The participating governments will establish dedicated platforms for the five initial sectors. Technical officials are committed to meeting before December to develop terms of reference, exchange non-confidential information about excess capacity and its effects, and identify gaps in available data.
They also agreed to explore effective and, where possible, complementary actions to protect their economies. Other countries, including those outside the OECD, are invited to participate.
While the announcement does not impose new tariffs or specify particular enforcement measures, it establishes a process for developing coordinated responses across industries where governments say subsidized overproduction threatens employment, investment, and industrial development.
The initiative builds on a decade of international discussions about excess capacity. The statement recalls that G20 ministers and leaders agreed in 2016 that government subsidies and other support could distort markets and contribute to industrial overcapacity. Those discussions helped establish the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity.
Despite those commitments, the signatories said, the problem has worsened and spread through domestic industries and their supply chains.
The new agreement broadens that effort beyond steel, bringing major advanced and emerging economies together to address practices they say threaten manufacturing and ultimately lower living standards.
