US to Impose New Tariffs Up to 12.5% on 60 Trading Partners, Including Thailand

The United States is set to impose new tariffs of either 10% or 12.5% on goods from its top 60 trading partners, including China, Japan, and Thailand, on Friday, citing their alleged failure to adequately ban the import of goods made with forced labor. The announcement comes ahead of the expiration of a 10% global tariff introduced by President Donald Trump in February, which was enacted shortly after the Supreme Court invalidated his sweeping country-specific "reciprocal" duties and fentanyl-related levies against products from China, Canada, and Mexico. "President Trump recognizes that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labor from global supply chains," said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in a statement. "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," Greer added. The targeted trading partners, which account for about 99% of US imports, will face varying tariff rates depending on the seriousness of forced labor allegations assessed by the administration. While most will be hit by new 12.5% tariffs, around 20 others, including the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Mexico, will face 10% duties, as they are considered to have taken greater legal steps to prevent the import of goods suspected of being produced with forced labor. Among key Asian trading partners, Japan and South Korea will face the higher rate, but items already subject to tariffs of 12.5% or higher will be exempted from the new measure. China, however, will not receive preferential treatment, meaning the new 12.5% tariff will be added on top of existing import taxes. The new tariffs will not apply to imports already subject to sector-specific duties levied on national security grounds since Trump's return to office in January last year, such as automobiles and steel products. The US administration launched trade investigations in March to replace a large chunk of Trump's far-reaching tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court. Greer and other senior officials have asserted that US companies compete against foreign rivals on an uneven playing field, claiming many trading partners have reduced costs by utilizing forced labor. In addition to the forced labor probe, the administration has been examining what it views as unfair practices related to excess industrial capacity in 16 economies, including China, India, Japan, Vietnam, and the EU. Following the Supreme Court's decision, the administration had imposed the 10% tariff under a different legal authority, but it was permitted to last only 150 days unless Congress approved an extension. The temporary tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows a president to impose import taxes of up to 15% to address "large and serious" balance-of-payments deficits, is due to expire at 12:01 a.m. on Friday in Washington. While imposing the blanket tariff, the administration had been exploring more durable country-by-country duties, using Section 301 of the trade law. This statute, which allows the US government to impose tariffs in response to a foreign country's alleged unfair practices, was a favored tool of Trump for justifying higher levies on Chinese imports when he initiated a trade war with Beijing during his first term as president.