The United States announced Thursday a sweeping set of new tariffs targeting 60 global trading partners, framed around forced labor compliance concerns, that will replace an expiring temporary import duty first rolled out earlier this year by the Trump administration. The new levies, set to enter into force Friday, carry tiered rates between 10 and 12.5 percent and cover major world economies including China, India, and the European Union.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer stated in the official unveiling that Washington has enforced a national ban on forced labor imports for nearly a century, and argued it is long past due for all U.S. trading partners to adopt similarly rigorous rules.
The move marks the administration’s latest step to rebuild President Trump’s signature tariff regime, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a sweeping set of his earlier tariffs in February. That ruling severely limited the president’s ability to impose steep duties without explicit congressional authorization, delivering a major legal setback to his trade agenda.
Following the court decision, the Trump administration used alternative executive authority to reimpose a temporary 10 percent baseline tariff on most qualifying imports, but that measure carried a 150-day expiration that falls on Friday. The new round of duties, first proposed in June following a months-long regulatory investigation, replaces the expiring measure and has been structured to withstand future legal challenges far better than the earlier temporary tariffs, administration officials and trade experts note.
Under the new tiered structure, trading partners that have already enacted their own formal forced labor import bans face the lower 10 percent rate; this group includes Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. Nations deemed not to meet the compliance standard face the higher 12.5 percent levy, with major economies like China and Japan falling into this higher-tariff bracket, a senior U.S. official confirmed to reporters.
Notably, goods already covered by sector-specific Trump-era tariffs on steel and aluminum are excluded from the new measures, and all imports qualifying for duty-free access under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) also remain exempt.
Beyond the new forced labor-linked tariffs, Washington is currently conducting separate investigations into 16 global economies over allegations of excess industrial capacity, probes that could result in additional targeted duties down the line. Much like the original pre-ruling tariff framework, these future measures could carry varying rates tailored to individual countries.
Trade experts say the strategy of imposing a baseline tariff while retaining the threat of additional future levies is intentional, designed to preserve U.S. negotiating leverage with trading partners. Greta Peisch, a trade lawyer and former USTR general counsel now serving as a partner at Wiley Rein, told Agence France-Presse that the structure creates clear incentives for countries to adhere to existing trade agreements they have signed with Washington. Peisch added that by investing months in formal investigations ahead of imposing the new duties, administration officials have sought to build robust legal protections against future court challenges.
Josh Lipsky, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the new framework makes it far more likely that the tariffs will remain in place for the rest of Trump’s term, signaling that the world’s largest economy is shifting toward a significantly more protectionist trade posture going forward.
Former U.S. trade official Ryan Majerus, now a partner at King & Spalding, noted that the administration has actively been searching for legal pathways to continue aggressive tariff deployment. He added that Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act – the authority USTR Greer used to impose the latest duties – provides more policy flexibility than many observers recognize, allowing officials to adjust tariff rates over time in response to new developments.
The new tariff announcement comes on the heels of two other recent aggressive trade actions by the Trump administration: just weeks ago, a 25 percent tariff on a range of Brazilian goods went into effect, following a year-long investigation that found Brazil engaged in unfair trade practices. Earlier this week, Trump also ordered a 50 percent tariff on dozens of Canadian products, citing what the administration calls Ottawa’s discriminatory treatment of American alcohol, automobile, and dairy exports. That Canadian tariff is set to take effect in one month and relies on an untested new legal provision, which Lipsky says demonstrates the administration still has a range of untapped trade tools at its disposal.
Lipsky added that the flurry of new tariff actions signals that existing U.S. trade agreements remain fragile, despite past negotiations. Even so, the European Union – which signed a new trade pact with Washington in recent months – says it expects the U.S. to uphold all commitments laid out in the EU-U.S. joint statement.