The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed additional tariffs on imports from 60 economies, saying that all of them had failed to impose or enforce prohibitions on goods produced with forced labor.
Economies with existing or partial forced labor import bans — among them Canada, Mexico, the E.U., Taiwan, and the U.K. — would face a 10% duty, while the remaining economies, a group that includes China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, would be hit with a 12.5% rate. Apparel and textile imports from certain economies would be eligible to enter the U.S. below the standard tariff rate under a separate quota-based textile mechanism also included in the proposal. Several product categories are exempt from the tariffs, including energy, pharmaceuticals, beef, coffee, and certain fruits and vegetables.
"The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "We will no longer tolerate this disparity."
Of the 60 economies examined under the Section 301 investigation, 54 had no forced labor import prohibition whatsoever. The remaining six — Canada, Ecuador, the E.U., Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan — had adopted relevant laws or commitments but were found to be falling short on enforcement.
Before any duties can take effect, the proposal must go through a public review process, with the comment period closing July 6 and an open hearing set for the following day.
The announcement Tuesday reflects the Trump administration's strategy of turning to Section 301 authority to reconstitute a broad tariff regime after the Supreme Court struck down the duties Trump had previously levied through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. A 10% across-the-board import levy invoked under Section 122 of the Trade Act had been put in place to fill the gap left by the court's ruling, but that measure is slated to lapse in July.
The federal government has cleared $35.5 billion in tariff refunds for importers following the Supreme Court's February ruling, covering more than 8 million import entries through a CBP portal launched in April.
Several governments objected to the new proposal. Brussels pushed back on the announcement, with the European Commission declaring the duties had no legitimate basis and reaffirming that it intends to honor the trade accord it reached with Washington, according to Reuters. Austrialia objected as well, with the country's trade ministry arguing that any import taxes applied to Australian goods run contrary to the bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries, according to Bloomberg. Beijing rejected both the characterization and the remedy, disputing the existence of forced labor on Chinese soil and condemning unilateral tariff actions broadly