The Trump administration on Friday imposed new tariffs of 10 percent and 12.5 percent on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union and China, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans, just as a temporary 10 percent global tariff expired.
The new tariffs, announced on Thursday in a Federal Register notice, cover 99.4 percent of US imports, but include numerous product exemptions, such as oil and gas, fertiliser and certain food items.
“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,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
The US imposed a 10 percent duty on goods of Argentina, Bangladesh, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago.
The European Union, Taiwan, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland were assigned rates that, combined with pre-existing most-favoured-nation tariff rates, totalled 10 percent or 12.5 percent.
The other 38 countries were assigned a 12.5 percent rate.
