By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday imposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European Union and China, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labor bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expired.
The move is the White House's latest effort to restore President Donald Trump's campaign vision of a near-global tariff after the U.S. Supreme Court in February struck down his "reciprocal" duties of 10%
to 50% imposed last year under a national emergencies law to try to shrink the U.S. trade deficit.
The new tariffs, announced on Thursday in a Federal Register notice, cover 99.4% of U.S. imports, but include numerous product exemptions, such as oil and gas, fertilizer and certain food items.
Imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the new duties allow the administration to maintain a tariff floor on virtually all U.S. imports despite the Supreme Court setback. The tariffs are also likely to face less legal risk than those struck down in February, as Section 301 has survived prior court challenges.
Trump's temporary 10% global tariff expired at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Friday (0401 GMT) after 150 days. The new duties took effect at that exact same moment, with goods in transit exempted until 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 28.
"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," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "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."
Greer has previously pledged that for countries that have reached trade deals with Washington capping U.S. tariff rates, the new forced labor duties would not push them above those caps.
The U.S. imposed a 10% duty on goods of Argentina, Bangladesh, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago.
The European Union, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland were assigned rates that, combined with pre-existing most-favored-nation tariff rates, totaled 10% or 12.5%.
The other 38 countries were assigned a 12.5% rate. These include Vietnam, which issued a new decree this week that sets out more detailed rules banning imports of goods made with forced labor, and China - accused by the U.S. of detaining Uyghur minorities in work camps, which Beijing denies.
Trump administration officials have told Chinese counterparts they intend to rebuild Trump's second-term tariffs on Chinese goods back up to the 20% that was agreed upon in a trade truce with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2025 - but not exceed that level. Prior to Friday's action, China's tariff rate had fallen to 10%, excluding the 25% imposed during Trump's first term on industrial goods.
COUNTRIES PROTEST
The action drew immediate protests from some trade partners.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc viewed the new tariffs as a shock and Washington's rationale did not make sense.
"If you compare our labor laws to the ones of the United States, I mean, we have paid vacations, we have very good labor conditions for our employees, so it's not really grounded," she told Reuters on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Manila.
Australia and Brazil described the new tariffs as unjustified and said they would seek to have them removed, while Norway said there was "no basis" for them.
Canada - hit on Monday with new Trump tariffs on $20 billion worth of goods - issued a muted response to the "unilateral" tariffs.
"We will continue engaging constructively with the United States on this matter, as well as other outstanding issues, over the coming weeks to the mutual benefit of our citizens," said Dominic LeBlanc, Canada's minister in charge of U.S. trade.
Kelly Ann Shaw, a former White House trade adviser in Trump's first term and a partner with the Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld law firm, said the new tariffs closely tracked what had been telegraphed, although some changes had been made, including the addition of some 471 products to an exclusion list.
"I think this is more status quo in terms of the economic impact," she said. Partners including the EU had negotiated tariff caps, which meant their new tariffs would be lower than under their earlier agreement, she said.
A senior Trump administration official disputed suggestions that the forced labor tariffs were simply a direct replacement for the expiring levies despite the timing, similar duty rates and vast coverage of nearly all U.S. imports.
The official said the U.S. has stronger import bans on goods made with forced labor and enforces them more rigidly than any other country, giving rivals an unfair trading advantage over the U.S.
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been calling for the eradication of forced labor from global supply chains, "so we're really responding to that call," the official said.
Ryan Majerus, a trade lawyer and former Commerce Department official, said the new tariffs could be harder to challenge in court because Section 301 has withstood past challenges and some judges may be reluctant to enjoin actions to curb forced labor.
"Once the 301 duties are placed, they have a lot of flexibility to adjust them," said Majerus, a partner at King and Spalding. "It's a sledgehammer. It's also intended to keep the ...10% baseline in place, and they think they're well protected when this goes to court."
Many goods will be exempted from the duties, including oil and gas, fertilizer, certain foodstuffs and goods that are already subject to Section 232 national security tariffs, such as autos, steel, aluminum and copper, the official said. Aircraft and parts will also be exempted, along with critical minerals.
Other goods that comply with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade will also be exempted because of the highly integrated North American supply chain and high levels of U.S. content in these products.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lincoln Feast and)
