By AFP and published by CNA
WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday (July 23) that it would impose new tariffs on 60 trading partners over forced labour concerns, replacing an expiring global duty rolled out by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.
The levies, which take effect today, range from 10 percent to 12.5 percent and impact major economies like China, India and the European Union.
Thailand, China and Vietnam are among the countries slapped with 12.5 percent tariff, according to Newsweek and Thai-language Daily News newspaper.
“The United States has had a forced labour import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in unveiling the duties.
The Trump administration has moved swiftly to rebuild the president’s tariff wall after the Supreme Court struck down a host of his duties in February – dealing a blow to his ability to unleash steep levies at will.
After the legal setback, Trump tapped different authorities to reimpose a 10-percent tariff on imports. But this only lasts 150 days, expiring Friday.
The volley of new duties, initially proposed in June, will now take its place.
The measures were proposed after a months-long investigation and are considered more resistant to legal challenges than earlier moves.
Under Thursday’s announcement, economies that have implemented a forced labour prohibition are hit with the lower 10-percent rate. They include Canada, the EU and the United Kingdom.
Others were deemed to deserve harsher levies, receiving the higher 12.5 percent tariff, a US official told reporters. Trading partners like China and Japan are covered in this group.
Singapore is also subject to a 12.5 percent tariff, according to the office of the US trade representative, which listed 54 that have “failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour”.
Goods already facing Trump’s sector-specific tariffs – like steel and aluminium – will not be impacted.
Goods entering under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade pact will also be exempt, a US official told reporters.
Maintaining leverage
Washington is separately investigating 16 economies over excess industrial capacity, in probes that could lead to additional duties.
These could result in different rates among countries eventually, as Trump had done before his legal setback.
The Trump administration’s move to impose a baseline tariff while sustaining the threat of further duties ahead maintains leverage over its trading partners, trade lawyer Greta Peisch told AFP.
It also creates an incentive for countries to comply with trade pacts that they earlier struck, she added.
In spending time on investigations, officials want their incoming tariffs to be robust if there are court challenges, said Peisch, a former USTR general counsel who is now a partner at Wiley Rein.
“This makes it much more likely that they stay for the duration of Trump’s term,” signalling a “much more protectionist world’s largest economy” moving forward, Josh Lipsky of the Atlantic Council think tank told AFP.
The Trump administration has been hunting for options that would allow it to aggressively deploy tariffs, said former US trade official Ryan Majerus.
In the longer term, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which Greer tapped to impose the latest duties, provides “more flexibility than people realise,” Majerus said.
Once they are in place, officials can modify them based on new developments, added Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding.
“Fragile deals”
The latest salvo comes shortly after a separate 25-percent tariff took effect on various Brazilian goods, with Washington accusing the Latin American giant of unfair trade practices after a yearlong investigation.
This week, Trump also ordered new 50-percent tariffs on many Canadian products, citing Ottawa’s “discriminatory treatment” against American alcohol, automobile and dairy products.
The Canadian tariffs taking effect in a month relied on an untested legal provision, showing that Trump has “other tools in the toolkit” to wield, said Lipsky.
This signals that US tariff deals “are still fragile”.
Nonetheless, the EU, which earlier signed a trade pact with the United States, expects Washington “will honour the commitments that are spelled out under the EU-US Joint Statement”.
CAPTIONS:
Top: US President Donald Trump arrives for an event to honour the 2025 World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Washington. Photo: AP/Alex Brandon and published by CNA
Front Page: US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he exits Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews after attending the World Cup final match on July 19, 2026. Photo: AP/Jacquelyn Martin and published by CNA
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