THE United States will impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners from Friday, replacing temporary global duties with a new trade regime justified on allegations that many countries have failed to adequately enforce bans on forced labour.
The new measures, announced in a Federal Register notice on Thursday, are being imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and will apply to 99.4% of all U.S. imports, while exempting a range of products including oil and gas, fertiliser, selected food items and goods already subject to separate national security tariffs.
Reuters reported on Friday that the move marks the latest effort by President Donald Trump to preserve his broad tariff agenda after the U.S. Supreme Court in February invalidated his reciprocal tariffs of between 10% and 50%, ruling that the administration had exceeded its authority under national emergency legislation.
The temporary 10% tariff imposed following that ruling expires at 12.01am EDT on Friday, with the new Section 301 duties taking effect immediately thereafter. Goods already in transit will remain exempt until July 28.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the new tariffs were intended to address both human rights concerns and distortions in international trade.
"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 said.
"Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere."
Under the final determination, imports from Argentina, Bangladesh, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago will be subject to a 10% tariff.
The European Union, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland will face tariff rates which, when combined with existing most-favoured-nation duties, amount to either 10% or 12.5%.
The remaining 38 countries, including China, will be subject to the higher 12.5% tariff rate.
Greer said countries that had concluded trade agreements with Washington incorporating anti-forced labour provisions would not face tariffs exceeding the ceilings agreed under those deals.
Trade experts said the latest measures broadly replicate the tariff levels negotiated under previous reciprocal trade arrangements.
"As expected, the forced labor tariffs largely replicate current tariff levels as negotiated in various reciprocal trade agreements, and replace the 10% tariffs under Section 122 that expire on Friday," said Tim Brightbill, a trade law partner at Wiley Rein in Washington.
A senior Trump administration official rejected suggestions that the new tariffs merely replaced the expiring duties, arguing that the United States maintained stricter enforcement against imports made with forced labour than other countries, creating what Washington viewed as an uneven competitive environment.
The official said there was bipartisan support in Congress for eliminating forced labour from global supply chains and added that President Trump would continue using tariffs to advance his trade policy objectives.
In addition to oil, gas, fertiliser and selected food products, exemptions will also apply to goods covered by existing Section 232 national security tariffs, including automobiles, steel, aluminium and copper.
Products qualifying under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) will likewise remain exempt because of the highly integrated North American manufacturing supply chain.
The final Section 301 tariffs closely mirror proposals first unveiled on June 1, with countries deemed to have sufficiently robust anti-forced labour laws receiving the lower 10% rate, while those judged to have inadequate measures face the higher 12.5% tariff.
Following consultations, the U.S. Trade Representative's office expanded the list of exempt products to include pig iron, selected sugar products, animal and seed products, and certain chemicals. - July 24, 2026
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