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Tariffs hit 60 partners
The Trump administration imposed new tariffs on 60 trading partners, with the Office of the US Trade Representative saying the duties cover 99.4% of US imports and apply at 10% to 12.5% on all goods.
“US President Donald Trump has imposed new double-digit tariffs on dozens of trading partners of the United States”
The tariffs replace an identical levy that expires on Friday and are based on claims that key economic partners failed to properly tackle forced labour, with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer saying, "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."
US trade expert Caroline Freund told the BBC's Today programme the move is "not about forced labour" and that Trump is "simply 'looking for a legal reason to put the tariffs in'."
The new duties took effect just after midnight Eastern Standard Time on Friday, July 24, as the temporary 10% global tariff expired at 12:01 a.m. in Washington, DC, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative and Al Jazeera.
The legal basis for the new tariffs is Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which the US uses to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in "unjustifiable", "unreasonable", or "discriminatory" trade practices, according to Al Jazeera.
Allies dispute forced labor
Allies and trading partners criticized the forced-labour rationale as the tariffs took effect, with Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell calling the 12.5% tariffs "unjustified" and saying, "We believe we do take the issue of modern slavery seriously."
In Europe, the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters that the bloc’s labor laws are not comparable to the US case, saying, "we have very good conditions, labor conditions, for our employees, so it's not really grounded."
The BBC also quoted Freund arguing the tariffs were a legal workaround, while NPR reported that Australia and the European Union rejected the allegation that the US had renewed the tax on imports based on forced-labor enforcement.
NPR said the Office of the US Trade Representative set the structure so that trading partners that have made commitments to adopt and effectively enforce forced labor import prohibitions will have a 10% tariff, while those that have failed to adopt a forced labor import prohibition will have a 12.5% tariff rate.
China denied the forced-labor allegations, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying, "There is no so-called forced labour in China, and we oppose using this as an excuse for political manipulation," as the Foreign Ministry condemned the move.
Court fight and next steps
Two small American businesses sued the Trump administration over the new tariffs, with the lawsuit filed by the Liberty Justice Center and the case described as a fresh legal challenge to the administration’s forced-labor tariff policy.
The Guardian reported that the lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, which had won a US supreme court case against the president’s tariffs earlier this year, forcing the administration to unravel many of its controversial import duties.
Forbes said the tariffs were imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and that the plaintiffs argued the authority should be "targeted, country-specific and practice-specific remedial authority" rather than a broad tax on imports.
Forbes also reported that Peter Harrell, the Biden administration’s former senior director for international economics, told The New York Times that "Trump is reinterpreting the statute to try to impose perpetual tariffs on almost all imports."
Looking ahead, Al Jazeera said the administration has launched a probe into whether 16 countries, accounting for 70 percent of US imports, have overproduced goods, pushing down prices and putting US companies at a disadvantage, and that additional tariffs based on Section 301 are likely coming.
