Trump Imposes New Tariffs On 60 Countries As Temporary US Import Levies Expire

President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled new double-digit tariffs on imports from dozens of countries, using a different legal authority to preserve broad import duties after the US Supreme Court struck down his earlier tariff regime. According to AP, the new measures will replace temporary worldwide levies that expire on Friday and will apply to 60 trading partners accounting for 99 per cent of US imports.

The latest tariffs mark the administration's effort to keep sweeping import duties in place following its Supreme Court setback. AP reported that the White House has shifted from temporary tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to the more durable Section 301 of the same law, which authorises tariffs and other sanctions against countries found to engage in "unjustifiable", "unreasonable" or "discriminatory" trade practices. The administration says the affected countries have failed either to impose or effectively enforce bans on goods produced through forced labour.

“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,” said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The new duties, ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent, replace the temporary 10 per cent worldwide tariffs Trump introduced after the Supreme Court ruled in February that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 did not authorise the sweeping tariffs he had imposed on imports from nearly every country. Trump had argued that America's longstanding trade deficit constituted a national emergency under IEEPA, but the court rejected that interpretation, requiring the administration to refund importers who had paid the tariffs.

Following that ruling, Trump invoked Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose temporary 10 per cent worldwide tariffs. However, Section 122 authorises such tariffs for only 150 days, with that authority expiring at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

According to AP, the administration has now turned to Section 301, the same provision Trump used during his first term to impose tariffs on China, which later survived court challenges.

More Section 301 tariffs could follow. The Office of the US Trade Representative has launched an investigation into whether 16 countries, accounting for 70 per cent of US imports, have overproduced goods, driving down global prices and putting US companies at a competitive disadvantage. The administration has yet to complete the investigation.

Forced labour is defined by the International Labour Organization's Forced Labour Convention of 1930 as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself (or herself) voluntarily.” According to the latest International Labour Organization estimates, around 27.6 million people worldwide were in forced labour on any given day in 2021.

Human rights organisations said it was reasonable to question the administration's motivations, but argued that import restrictions could still encourage countries to strengthen enforcement against forced labour.

“We’ve gone on record for years now advocating for import bans, not as a magic bullet, it’s not a silver bullet, but as a potentially effective tool in combating forced labor across the globe,” said Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of The Human Trafficking Legal Center.