BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - The United States has imposed new import tariffs on its 60 trading partners saying that the governments in those countries have failed to properly tackle forced labor.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced on Thursday that U.S. is imposing a 10 percent or 12.5 percent tariff on 60 trading partners, subject to exemptions for certain products.
Ambassador Greer said he is taking this action at the direction of President Donald Trump, after his Office's Section 301 Investigations into the 'Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure to Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor.'
The new duties apply to the top 60 U.S. trade partners covering 99.4 percent of U.S. imports.
USTR said that countries that have made commitments to adopt, and effectively enforce, forced labor import prohibitions will have a 10 percent tariff, and trading partners that have failed to adopt a forced labor import prohibition will have a 12.5 percent tariff rate.
A tariff rate of 10 percent will apply on goods of Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad and Tobago.
China and the European Union will face a tariff of 10 to 12.5 percent.
Informational materials, donations, and accompanied baggage; All articles subject to section 232 tariffs; and raw materials that if subject to the proposed additional tariffs could lead to the unavailability of domestic supply; products that could cause economy-wide disruptions if subject to the proposed additional tariffs; certain products that cannot be grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States or obtained from other sources have been exempted from the new tariffs.
'Today's action strikes an overdue blow against the prevalence of forced labor in global supply chains and sends a clarion call to the world to join the United States in adopting the most common sense of policies to combat this indefensible practice,' U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
USTR said in a press release that U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel at all U.S. ports of entry will detain shipments of copper and copper products manufactured in Serbia and apparel products manufactured in Jordan due to evidence reasonably indicating the use of forced labor in their production.
Many countries have criticized the new tariffs, including Brazil, Australia and Japan.
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