The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is implementing a new slate of import taxes targeting 60 trading partners—covering over 99% of U.S. imports—over their alleged failure to enforce bans on products made with forced labor.
The new duties, ranging between 10% and 12.5%, take effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday to seamlessly replace the temporary 10% global surcharge enacted under Section 122 of the Trade Act. That stopgap measure was put in place after the Supreme Court struck down earlier emergency-power trade actions, but Section 122 automatically expires after its 150-day limit.
To maintain broad trade protection without a gap in revenue or policy, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer utilized Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which grants executive authority to penalize nations participating in "unjustifiable" or "discriminatory" trade practices—in this instance, insufficient regulations or enforcement surrounding human rights and forced labor standards.
Section 301 previously survived major judicial challenges during Trump's first term.
The administration divided trading partners into two main categories based on their enforcement records.
The 10% Tariff Tier applies to partners deemed to have forced-labor restrictions in place or negotiated under reciprocal trade agreements, but lacking robust enforcement. This includes the European Union, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan.
The 12.5% Tariff Tier applies to over 40 economies identified as having significant deficiencies or a lack of legal prohibitions, including China, India, and Japan.
While foreign trading partners, including the European Union, have strongly criticized the move as unjustified, the administration maintains the duties are essential to protect domestic workers and promote ethical supply chains.
The administration official said that many goods will be exempted from the duties, including oil and gas, fertilizer, certain foodstuffs, and goods that are already subject to Section 232 national security tariffs, such as autos, steel, aluminum and copper.
Other goods that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade will also be exempted because of the highly integrated North American supply chain and high levels of U.S. content in the goods.