Forced Labor Tariff Replace IEEPA Reciprocal Tariff in US, Major Shift Away from WTO MFN Rules

· 17 Including India Get 10% Tariff

· Five Advanced Countries Hit 10 to 12.5% with Netting of MFN

· 13 including Bangladesh, UK, EU Exempted to Grant Time for “Enforcing Forced Labor Import Prohibitions”

[ABS News Serivce/25.07.2026]

President Trump said yesterday he is imposing additional tariffs of either 10 percent or 12.5 percent on some 60 countries for alleged failure to prevent forced labor, effectively keeping in place a 10 percent temporary global tariff that expires today.

The Section 301 forced labor tariffs ensure that the President gets to retain the tariff wall he has put up, replacing the much-higher International Emergency Economic Powers Act global tariffs that were struck down by the US Supreme Court.

The Administration now is using the Section 301 unfair trade practices law to slap tariffs on trade partners for their failure to impose and effectively enforce a ban on the import of goods made with forced labor.

“President Trump recognizes that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labor from global supply chains. The United States has had a forced labor 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.

Section 301 allows USTR to investigate whether the acts, policies or practices of other countries are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict US commerce.

Tariff Rates

USTR said it has made the following determinations:

· 10 percent is the appropriate rate of Section 301 duties for investigated economies that (I) impose a forced labor import prohibition; (ii) have committed to impose and enforce such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade; or (iii) have imposed a partial regime with the effect of preventing the importation of certain forced labor goods. These economies are: Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom;

· 10 percent or 12.5 percent, net of Most-Favored-Nation rate is the appropriate rate of Section 301 duties for certain products of the European Union, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Switzerland that are not otherwise exempted and

· 12.5 percent is the appropriate rate of Section 301 duty for all other investigated economies. Products exempted from the tariff include (a) raw materials that if subject to these tariffs could lead to the unavailability of domestic supply; (b) products that could cause economy-wide disruptions if subject to these tariffs; (c) products that cannot be grown or produced in sufficient quantities or at reasonable prices in the United States or obtained from other sources; (d) certain products of Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, the European Union, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Taiwan, or the United Kingdom that would encourage these economies to fulfill commitments regarding forced labor import prohibitions or to enact and effectively enforce a forced labor import prohibition; or (e) articles for which these tariffs may not contribute substantially to the elimination of the acts, policies and practices of found to be actionable in the investigations.

This action applies to the top 60 US trade partners covering 99.4 percent of US imports, according to USTR.