The U.S. Trade Representative proposed tariffs of up to 12.5% on imports from dozens of economies after finding trading partners failed to effectively block goods made with forced labor.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration is proposing new tariffs on imports from dozens of U.S. trading partners after a federal review found they failed to adequately prevent goods made with forced labor from entering American markets.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said June 2 that it had completed investigations into 60 economies under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The reviews examined whether trade practices by U.S. partners allowed forced-labor goods to move through global supply chains and reach the United States.
The investigations began March 11, when U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer said the administration would examine whether those practices discriminated against or burdened U.S. commerce.
In a June 2 statement, Greer said the review found that none of the 60 trading partners had effectively enforced an import ban on goods produced with forced labor. The economies examined included Australia, Canada, China, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Vietnam and the European Union.
“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,” Greer said. “This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”
Under the proposal, 16 economies, including Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the European Union, would face additional tariffs of 10% for allegedly failing to enforce forced-labor restrictions. Other trading partners, including China, India and Japan, would face tariffs of 12.5%.
The USTR report found that each investigated economy’s failure to impose and effectively enforce a forced-labor import prohibition was “unreasonable.” The trade office said those failures undermine the “universal aim of eliminating forced labor,” distort markets in favor of companies that use forced labor and weaken companies that follow lawful labor standards.
The report also said weak enforcement contributes to the “circumvention of existing forced labor import prohibitions.”
“We will no longer tolerate this disparity. Some trading partners have taken initial steps to prevent the importation of forced labor goods, including through USMCA and commitments in Agreements on Reciprocal Trade,” Greer said. “However, each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labor globally.”
The USTR cited several sectors and supply chains as examples of markets vulnerable to distortion from forced labor. Those included China’s polysilicon production for the solar panel supply chain, Chinese-made cotton exported to Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, rice production in Burma, tobacco from Malawi and beef from Brazil.
In a Federal Register notice, the trade office said six partners — Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan — have laws banning the import of goods made with forced labor.
The USTR also noted that nine partners have made commitments in reciprocal trade agreements with the United States to ban forced-labor imports. Those partners include Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan. The United Kingdom was also recognized for a “partial regime” that blocks certain forced-labor goods.
Although those 14 partners have taken steps beyond the other economies reviewed, the USTR said they still failed to effectively enforce those protections. As a result, the administration proposed a 10% tariff on those partners. The remaining trading partners, which the USTR said failed both to impose and enforce forced-labor import bans, would face the higher 12.5% tariff.
The proposal includes exemptions for goods already subject to Section 232 tariffs and for raw materials needed to protect domestic supply or avoid economic disruption. Textile imports would receive a partial exemption, with reduced Section 301 tariff rates applied in volumes reciprocal to U.S. textile imports by the trading partner.
The proposal follows recent court rulings against some Trump administration tariff actions. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unlawful. After that decision, the administration said it would pursue tariffs through Sections 232 and 301, which it argued rest on stronger legal authority.
A separate temporary 10% surcharge imposed under Section 122 was struck down by the U.S. Court of International Trade in May. The administration has appealed that decision, and the duties are still being collected while the measure remains set to expire July 24.
In its June 2 report, the USTR said international law and human rights standards support action against forced labor. The office cited the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948, which states that “no one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.”
The trade office also said in a post on X that the United States has barred imports made with forced labor for “nearly a century.”
“It is time for our trading partners to follow suit,” the office said.
The USTR will hold hearings on the proposed tariffs July 7. Public comments will be accepted through July 6, and requests to appear at the hearing must be submitted by June 22.
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