Photo: Office of the United States Trade Representative / @USTradeRep on X (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons (source)
Fourteen economies have joined the United States in a joint statement pledging to work together against what they call "structural excess capacity and production" in key manufacturing industries, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Besides the United States, the signers are the European Union and its members France, Germany, Italy and Poland, plus Argentina, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, all represented by their trade ministers. USTR brought senior officials from the group together on the sidelines of an OECD Trade Committee meeting.
Five sectors first
The joint ministerial statement commits the signers to set up new sector-by-sector platforms, starting with autos and electric vehicles, batteries, chemicals, foundational semiconductors and solar panels.
The document defines the problem as production that persistently outstrips global demand, would not exist under market conditions and is created or sustained by government policy. It says such capacity distorts prices, discourages new entrants and can leave trading partners dependent on one country's output, raising their exposure to economic coercion such as arbitrary export curbs. The statement does not name any country.
Without timely action, the signers wrote, overcapacity in those sectors could "cripple our domestic industries" and cost jobs. They called on all countries to drop non-market policies that feed the problem, and noted that a growing number of governments are already acting on their own to shield their industries. Coordinated action would work better, the statement said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said many economies raised cases of overcapacity during the U.S. presidency of the Group of 20. "The Trump Administration will continue to engage with our trading partners to defend our domestic industries, workers, and economy," he said.
Building on 2016 G20 pledges
The statement follows the G20 trade ministers' meeting in Milwaukee on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, according to the document. It recalls that G20 trade ministers raised concern about excess capacity in Shanghai in 2016, a step that led to the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, and that G20 leaders pledged collective responses at their Hangzhou summit that year. The signers wrote that the problem has grown worse since then.
What's next
Officials committed to meet at the technical level before December 2026 to draft terms of reference, share non-confidential data on overcapacity and its effects, and identify gaps in information, drawing on OECD work where appropriate. The group invited other countries, inside and outside the OECD, to join.
Sources
- Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: Fourteen Economies Join the United States in Signing a Joint Ministerial Statement to Address Global Excess Capacity and Production in Key Manufacturing Sectors (2026-10-07)
- Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: Joint Ministerial Statement on Addressing Structural Excess Capacity and Production (2026-10-07)
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