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The US has launched fresh investigations into trading partners including the EU, Japan and Korea, as Donald Trump looks to shore up his tariff wall after the Supreme Court struck down many of his previous levies.

The US trade representative’s office on Wednesday unveiled an investigation into what it said was “excess capacity and production in manufacturing sectors” in a string of countries.

The move is likely to help the Trump administration raise duties back to the level they were at before the US’s top court last month ruled the president could not use emergency powers to impose tariffs.

Although the administration moved immediately following the court ruling to impose a blanket 10 per cent tariff on almost all trading partners to replace the levies that were deemed illegal by justices, it will only last for 150 days.

Many of the countries targeted on Wednesday — including the EU, Taiwan, Switzerland, Japan and Korea — have reached trade agreements with the US to set their tariffs at specific levels that are often higher than 10 per cent.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer said his “target” was to conclude his fresh investigations ahead of the expiration of the current stopgap levies.

“The president’s trade policy remains the same that it’s been for him for decades, which is we need to protect American jobs and we need to make sure we have fair trade with our trading partners,” Greer said, adding: “the tools may change”.

He insisted US trading partners had all expressed an interest in “maintaining” the recent deals struck with the Trump administration and “holding to them”.

The EU parliament last month said that in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling it would delay ratifying its trade agreement with Washington. The bloc had agreed to slash its levies on American industrial goods and some agricultural products to as low as zero in return for a broad tariff of 15 per cent from the US.

However, the EU’s new rate of 10 per cent comes on top of existing duties, whereas the previous 15 per cent rate included many existing duties.

Trump also triggered a crisis in transatlantic relations earlier this year when he threatened to impose tariffs on several European countries unless they supported his ambition to acquire Denmark’s territory of Greenland.

Asked if he felt the new probes could further inflame trade tensions between the US and the EU, Greer responded: “The EU has done approximately zero per cent of what they were supposed to do with their trade deal for us.”

He added the US had “quickly” come into compliance with the so-called Turnberry deal struck by the two sides, while the EU had its required tariff changes “pending for many, many, many, many months”.

“The Europeans agreed in the Turnberry deal that we could have a certain amount of tariff on them,” Greer said. “So we’re striving for continuity. We’ve modified our tariffs accordingly. We’re still waiting for Europe to do a lot of what it promised.”

Alongside the EU, countries targeted by the new probe include China, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Japan and India.

Greer said his office would next week launch a second investigation into forced labour practices that would target more than 60 countries. He added Washington was also planning to launch further probes into topics including digital services trade and drug pricing, but he did not say when they would take place.

The investigations — which include China — come as Greer and US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent prepare to hold trade talks with their Chinese counterparts this weekend ahead of a meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping in April.