The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative imposed new tariffs on 60 economies covering 99.4% of U.S. imports, charging those partners with failing to impose and enforce bans on goods made with forced labor. The rates run 10% for economies that have adopted or committed to import prohibitions and 12.5% for those that haven't, and they took effect Friday as a temporary 10% global tariff expired at 12:01 a.m.
That expiring duty was itself a stopgap. Trump imposed it under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 after the Supreme Court ruled in February that his emergency-powers tariffs were unlawful, and Section 122 levies can only run 150 days. The new tariffs use Section 301 of the same act, the tool Trump used against China in his first term, which survived court challenges then. USTR said the action followed investigations that included two rounds of public hearings and more than 2,100 public comments.
Several trading partners rejected the forced-labor rationale. Australia's Trade Minister Don Farrell called the levies "unjustified" and said they "should be removed." Brazil, which faces the 12.5% rate, called the move "arbitrary and unjustified," said it plans to trigger its reciprocity law, and said it will take a complaint to the World Trade Organization. Canada, in the 10% tier with a USMCA exemption, said the action "is not unexpected."
Some products are exempt, including oil and gas, fertilizer, agricultural goods, and items already covered by Section 232 steel and aluminum duties.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics wrote that the investigation is "not a labor-standards exercise but a mechanism for exporting America's import ban on Chinese goods, as well as an attempt to recreate the tariff regime struck down by the Supreme Court." The institute's Alan Wolff wrote that if the new tariffs were challenged in court, "the Supreme Court would likely overturn them," arguing the Constitution vests tariff authority in Congress. USTR has launched a separate Section 301 probe into whether 16 countries have overproduced goods, and that investigation is not yet complete.
