The US has launched a new investigation into some of its biggest trading partners after the Supreme Court struck down a key part of President Donald Trump's tariffs policies last month.

On Wednesday, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Section 301 unfair trade practices probe could lead to new levies against countries including China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea and Mexico by this summer.

The probe could allow the US to impose import taxes on goods from any of the countries found to have engaged in unfair trade practices.

Greer said he hoped to conclude the investigations before new temporary tariffs imposed by Trump in late February expire in July.

"The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us," Greer said in the announcement.

Other countries being investigated include Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Switzerland and Norway.

Canada, which is the US's second largest trading partner, was not mentioned as a target of the probe.

The move comes weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs imposed by Trump on a slew of countries around the world in April last year were unlawful.

Soon after the decision, the president announced a new 10% global tariff, calling the ruling "terrible" and lambasting the justices who rejected his trade policy as "fools".

The following day he said the levy would be 15% but when it came into effect the rate actually being charged was 10%.

Since then Trump and other senior officials in his administration have said the levy will be raised to 15%.

The probe offers the Trump administration a way to rebuild its case for a credible tariff threat against trading partners.

It also comes as top US officials are set to meet their Chinese counterparts in Paris this weekend.

Those talks are expected to help lay the groundwork for Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of March. (BBC News)

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