THE Trump administration will today impose new tariffs of 10 per cent and 12.5pc on 60 trading partners, including the European Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans, just as a temporary 10pc global tariff expires, senior administration officials said yesterday.
The move is the White House’s latest effort to restore President Donald Trump’s campaign vision of a near-global tariff after the US Supreme Court in February struck down his “reciprocal” duties of 10pc to 50pc imposed last year under a national emergencies law to try to shrink the US trade deficit.
Trump responded to that ruling by imposing a temporary 10pc tariff for 150 days that expired at 12.01am today (7.01am Bahrain time), invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a law meant to quell balance of payments crises. The new duties will take effect at that exact same moment, with goods in transit exempted until 12:01am EDT on Tuesday.
A senior Trump administration official disputed suggestions that the forced labour tariffs – invoked under the 1974 law’s Section 301 – were simply a direct replacement for the expiring levies despite the timing, similar duty rates and vast coverage of nearly all US imports. The official said the US has stronger import bans on goods made with forced labour and enforces them more rigidly than any other country, giving rivals an unfair trading advantage over the US.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been calling for the eradication of forced labour from global supply chains, “so we’re really responding to that call.”
The official added that Trump would “always use the tools at his disposal to achieve his trade policy objectives, and that includes tariffs.”
The administration official said that many goods will be exempted from the duties, including oil and gas, fertiliser, 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 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade will also be exempted because of the highly integrated North American supply chain and high levels of US content in the goods.
The final Section 301 unfair trade practices tariffs largely track the forced labour duties proposed on June 1.
Goods from countries that have passed adequate anti-forced labour laws will be levied at the lower 10pc rate, and imports from those with inadequate bans will be subject to the higher 12.5pc rate.
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