{"id":239,"date":"2026-06-05T21:24:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T21:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=239"},"modified":"2026-06-05T21:24:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T21:24:40","slug":"us-proposes-new-tariffs-over-forced-labor-irking-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"US proposes new tariffs over forced labor, irking Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The US Trade Representative on Tuesday proposed new duties targeting 60 economies for alleged failures to act against forced labor, a move that risks renewed trade tensions with key partners.<\/p>\n

The proposed levies range from 10 percent to 12.5 percent, according to a government filing, and come as President Donald Trump\u2019s administration seeks to rebuild its tariff agenda following legal setbacks.<\/p>\n

The measures will undergo a public comment period before a final decision is made.<\/p>\n

But their announcement could lead to renewed friction between the United States and the European Union \u2014 one of the potential targets \u2014 as they move to implement a trade deal struck last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EU considers tariffs imposed on these grounds to be unjustified,\u201d EU trade spokesman Olof Gill said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The US move comes months after Washington opened investigations into trading partners including China, the EU and Japan.<\/p>\n

The probes looked into whether they took action against the import of goods made with forced labor, and if this impacted US commerce.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the USTR said 54 of the economies \u201cfailed to impose and effectively enforce a forced labor import prohibition.\u201d<\/p>\n

This group includes China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Britain.<\/p>\n

Six other economies \u2014 Canada, Ecuador, the EU, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan \u2014 were deemed not to have effectively enforced such prohibitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,\u201d US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But the proposed tariffs come with various exemptions such as beef, coffee and certain fruits and nuts.<\/p>\n

Goods from Canada and Mexico that comply with a North American free trade pact will also be exempt, as will certain textiles and apparel.<\/p>\n

The public can provide written comments by July 6, and the USTR will subsequently hold hearings.<\/p>\n

\u2013 EU moves ahead on deal \u2013<\/h2>\n

The EU\u2019s Gill said that Brussels would analyze the preliminary findings but noted that the 27-nation bloc had some of the world\u2019s \u201cmost ambitious\u201d laws against forced labour.<\/p>\n

He said the EU Commission expected Washington to \u201cfully respect the terms\u201d of an accord struck last July that caps US levies on most European goods at 15 percent, and would \u201ccontinue to ensure that the interests of the European Union are fully protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bloc has moved forward with implementing the deal, with the European Parliament\u2019s trade committee giving its approval on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The progress comes after the parliament suspended the ratification process several times, notably over Trump\u2019s threats this year to seize Greenland, and sought to include extra safeguards.<\/p>\n

After the US Supreme Court struck down a swath of Trump\u2019s tariffs in February, US officials began new trade probes in a push to impose more lasting duties.<\/p>\n

Apart from the investigations on forced labor, Greer also opened probes on excess industrial capacity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US Trade Representative on Tuesday proposed new duties targeting 60 economies for alleged failures to act against forced labor, a move that risks renewed trade tensions with key partners. The proposed levies range from 10 percent to 12.5 percent, according to a government filing, and come as President Donald Trump\u2019s administration seeks to rebuild […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,16,8,17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business-economy","category-europe","category-news","category-north-america","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naftimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}