Which countries will face Trump’s new tariffs?
The Trump administration on Thursday announced new tariffs on 60 economies including the European Union, citing their handling of imported goods made with forced labor.
In a statement, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said it investigated major trading partners and found that they failed to establish and effectively enforce restrictions on the import of goods made through modern slavery.
The tariffs cover more than 99% of US imports and replace a temporary 10% global tariff that was set to expire.
The 10% tariff will apply to countries such as Argentina, India, Pakistan and the UK that have adopted or committed to forced labor import restrictions.
The EU, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland will face tariffs of 10% or 12.5%, depending on the product.
Goods from 38 other countries will be subject to higher tariffs of 12.5%, including China, most of the Middle East, most of Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Russia.
The exemptions include steel, aluminium, automobiles, civil aircraft, rare earth minerals and goods covered under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The new tariffs took effect just after midnight Eastern Standard Time on Friday, July 24.
Are Trump’s New Tariffs Really About Forced Labor?
USTR noted that the US has banned imports involving forced labor for nearly a century, and said that despite international consensus, “the practice of forced labor persists around the world and has even increased in recent years.”
Washington argues that foreign producers get an unfair price advantage from the practice and that American workers cannot compete with forced wages.
Indeed, many critics and analysts see the move as a legal solution to US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff program, announced on “Liberation Day,” April 2, 2025, which was struck down by the US Supreme Court in February.
At the time, Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) to impose tariffs without congressional approval, but the court ruled that the law does not authorize presidents to impose tariffs on their own.
The new forced labor charges were introduced under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a more established trade law that many analysts believe would be harder for courts to overturn.
Does the EU really have a forced labor problem?
Compared to parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, forced labor is not a major issue within the 27-member EU, due to comprehensive labor laws and strong enforcement.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines forced labor as work performed under threat of punishment and without voluntary consent.
While labor protections in the EU are comparatively strong, many imports still contain raw materials or components associated with forced labor elsewhere.
In December 2027, Brussels will impose one of the strictest import restrictions in the world, when no products contaminated by forced labor will be allowed to enter, circulate or leave the EU market.
Responding to the new tariffs, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, compared the bloc’s labor laws to those of the United States, noting that EU workers have paid holidays and other better working conditions.
Why do critics see tariffs as a legal solution?
Some analysts argued that the new tariffs are not in line with the spirit of the Supreme Court decision and could be challenged.
“These new tariffs will represent yet another case of presidential overreach,” Alan Wolfe, former deputy director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), wrote in a blog post ahead of the announcement.
Wolff said, “The world has become accustomed to high American tariffs. There is no evidence that changing the American rationale for them will lead to reductions in forced labor in other countries.”
Others said Trump was using forced labor concerns as an excuse, while the share of imports involving forced labor from most advanced economies is negligible compared to China.
“The tariffs use genuine concerns about China’s labor practices as the basis not for tariffs against China, but for broader tariffs against much of the world,” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wrote on X.
Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, also believes the tariffs “divert the US and its allies’ attention from the trade war we must be fighting,” adding that it is cutting reliance on Chinese goods and building “resilient alternative supply chains.”
Trading partners echoed those criticisms, with Brazil calling the tariffs “unfair” and Australia labeling them “absurd.”
Could Trump use Section 301 for more tariffs?
The administration is already using Section 301 to launch another investigation into excess manufacturing capacity in 16 major trading partners, including China and the European Union. Trade experts estimate that this could lead to additional tariffs.
During his first term, the same law allowed Trump to impose tariffs on China over intellectual property theft and technology transfer. These were expanded under the Biden administration.
Trump’s team continues to maintain existing national-security tariffs on steel, aluminum, automobiles and other products under Section 232 of the same act.
Trump’s first administration imposed tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum in 2018 after the US Commerce Department found that low-cost imports threatened US national interests.
During his second term, Trump reinstated, extended and raised many of those rates, while adding new tariffs on vehicles, auto parts and copper.
Edited by: Tim Rooks