{"id":726,"date":"2026-06-04T15:55:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=726"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:55:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:55:23","slug":"us-announces-new-tariffs-over-forced-labour-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=726","title":{"rendered":"US announces new tariffs over forced labour concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>4 Minute, 19 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>


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The US has announced new tariffs of 10-12.5% on dozens of countries accounting for almost all its imports over concerns they are not doing enough to tackle forced labour.<\/p>\n

It is the second time President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has announced new import taxes since the US Supreme Court struck down many of his previous duties in February.<\/p>\n

The US Trade Department said these countries will face the tariffs because of their failure to address the importing of goods made with forced labour.<\/p>\n

The UK said it is tackling forced labour, China denied goods are made with forced labour, and the EU said the tariffs were unjustified.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an India analyst said the move was a pressure tactic as trade negotiations between the countries continue.<\/p>\n

Human rights groups say forced labour does exist in China and that the UK and other countries need to do more on making sure firms do not have forced labour in their supply chains.<\/p>\n

However, they questioned the effectiveness of US tariffs as a way of dealing with the problem.<\/p>\n

The 60 trading partners listed \u2013 including the UK, the EU, Canada, India and Japan \u2013 account for almost all of the goods sold to the US.<\/p>\n

The US government\u2019s stance is that trading with countries which buy things made with forced labour is unfair on the US.<\/p>\n

US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said it \u201ccreates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field\u201d.<\/p>\n

The tariffs announced have not yet been enforced. The Trump administration will need to go through a process to do so.<\/p>\n

The proposed tariffs come\u00a0after an investigation launched in March<\/a>\u00a0by Greer into the 60 trading partners, and whether those countries had failed to act on prohibiting forced labour.<\/p>\n

The report into the investigations concluded that 54 of the countries had \u201cfailed to impose a legal prohibition on the importation of goods produced wholly or in part with forced labour and to effectively enforce such a prohibition\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said six other trading partners \u2013 Canada, the EU, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan \u2013 had \u201cfailed to effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition\u201d.<\/p>\n

The trade department said it would impose 10% tariffs on imports from Canada, the EU, Britain, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.<\/p>\n

\u2018Unjustified\u2019 move<\/h2>\n

A UK government spokesperson said: \u201cWe\u2019re tackling forced labour in the UK and in global supply chains to ensure UK businesses are not complicit in forced labour and human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to engage regularly with the US administration as part of our negotiations, and have made clear the actions we\u2019re taking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amnesty International\u2019sbusiness and human rights director Peter Frankental told the BBC that \u201ctrade measures can play a role in addressing forced labour risks, but they are not a substitute for effective enforcement, corporate accountability and mandatory human rights due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe UK government urgently needs to get its own house in order; on that front, there remains significant room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner said \u201cthe UK law does not go far enough to tackle forced labour in supply chains\u201d.<\/p>\n

It calculates the UK imports around \u00a320bn of goods each year that may be linked to forced labour.<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the new tariffs were \u201cnot a surprise\u201d and would not impact the vast majority of Canadian exports to the US.<\/p>\n

China said it opposed any form of unilateral tariff, and denied allegations of forced labour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no so-called forced labour in China, and we oppose using this as an excuse for political manipulation,\u201d Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.<\/p>\n

But several international human rights have said forced labour does exist in China, particularly among Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

The European Commission said the EU remained committed to the trade deal agreed with the Trump administration last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU considers tariffs imposed on these grounds to be unjustified,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Ajay Srivastava of the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative said India should challenge the legal basis of the proposed tariffs, arguing they stretch the scope of Section 301 \u2013 a US trade law that allows Washington to investigate and penalise foreign trade practices deemed unfair.<\/p>\n

The move appeared to be part of \u201cbroader US pressure tactics\u201d, he said, and should be kept separate from ongoing trade negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia should reassess its participation and consider stepping away from the bilateral trade agreement, as Malaysia has done,\u201d Srivastava said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has not announced new tariffs since February when the Supreme Court ruled the so-called \u2018Liberation Day\u2019 tariffs imposed by Trump on a slew of countries around the world in April 2025 were unlawful.<\/p>\n

Trump called the ruling \u201cterrible\u201d and said the justices who rejected his trade policy were \u201cfools\u201d.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the ruling, Trump announced a 10% temporary global tariff but later said it would be 15%.<\/p>\n

However, the duty came in at 10%, and it has not yet been increased. The measure is due to expire in July, unless extended by Congress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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The US has announced new tariffs of 10-12.5% on dozens of countries accounting for almost all its imports over concerns they are not doing enough to tackle forced labour. It is the second time President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has announced new import taxes since the US Supreme Court struck down many of his previous duties…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-world-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}