The White House will impose new tariffs on the United States’ top 60 trading partners, which senior administration officials allege have violated forced labor laws.
The new tariffs , set at 10% and 12.5%, will take effect at 12:01 a.m. E.T. on Friday, the same day the president’s global 10% tariffs are set to expire after a 150-day deadline. The announcement follows a Section 301 investigation conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative into whether those countries had properly enforced prohibitions on the importation of goods produced by forced labor. Critics, however, argue the statue is being used simply to give Trump legal footing to impose a sweeping new tariff regime.
Canada, European Union and Mexico all already ban imports of products made with forced labor, but the U.S. Trade Representative’s office accused the countries of not effectively enforcing the bans.
Countries that have committed to implementing a forced labor prohibition — including Bangladesh, Canada, India, Mexico, and the United Kingdom — will receive a tariff rate of 10%. Meanwhile, countries that have not made such a commitment will face a slightly higher rate of 12.5%.
On a call with reporters on Thursday, a senior administration official said that many of the countries in the latter group have expressed interest in enacting forced labor prohibitions, but “they’re not there yet in terms of actually getting their laws through or modifying their practices or doing enforcement.” That is the reason, the official said, that there are a “differentiation” in tariff rates among these countries.
Some countries, the official added, have already seen their tariff rate reduce from 12.5% to 10% after implementing the laws in question.
The official called the news “the most sweeping international labor rights action” that the U.S. or any other country has taken, claiming it encourages stronger labor rights enforcement abroad, restores fairness in the global market for American workers, and incentivizes trading partners to join the United States in eliminating forced labor from global supply chains.
“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere,” U.S. Trade Representative Jameison Greer said in a statement. “I am encouraged by the trading partners who have moved quickly to adopt forced labor import prohibitions, and look forward to ensuring their effective enforcement.”
The announcement was made just before the expiration of Trump’s global tariffs.
When asked whether the new tariffs were made to replace the existing tariffs set to expire, officials rejected that notion and insisted that enforcing fair labor practices is something Trump has been “focused on since his first term.”
Section 301, part of the Trade Act of 1974, protects U.S. interests in foreign trade, and investigations under it determine whether a foreign country’s practices “burden or restrict U.S. commerce.” The U.S. Trade Office began its investigation in March, and concluded last month those countries were in violation of forced labor laws.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the new tariffs, if they remain in place, will add roughly $900 billion to the federal government’s revenue through 2036.
The news comes as latest example of the Trump administration looking for alternative ways to impose tariffs on foreign nations after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s ability to unilaterally require them earlier this year. This week, the president also imposed 50% tariffs on certain Canadian goods under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, which allows the president to respond to discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce by foreign governments.
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