WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Trade Representative's office said late on Thursday it had initiated Section 301 unfair trade practices probes of 60 economies in relation to what it called failures to take action on forced labor.

"These investigations will determine whether foreign governments have taken sufficient steps to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor and how the failure to eradicate these abhorrent practices impacts U.S. workers and businesses," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.