President Trump has reignited his trade war with a plan to impose tariffs on 60 U.S. trading partners more than three months after the Supreme Court struck down his IEEPA tariffs.
In its most sweeping action since the high court ruling, the Trump administration will impose tariffs of 10% on imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Taiwan and Britain, among other places, according to a statement released overnight by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Imports from other major economies, including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland, will face a 12.5% levy, the statement said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said it has the authority to impose the tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which empowers the U.S. to take action against unfair foreign trade practices. In this case, the administration is targeting countries that permit or fail to prohibit goods made with forced labor.
“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “We will no longer tolerate this disparity.”
Mr. Greer said some trading partners have taken “initial steps” to prevent the importation of goods made from forced labor, but “each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labor globally.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative flagged 34 goods from specific countries that contain parts produced with forced labor. Those included cotton for garments, critical minerals for solar products, fish for fish meal, and palm fruit and palm oil.
The tariffs will not go into effect immediately and could be changed before they are codified. Under federal law, the proposals are subject to a public comment and review period, with written comments due by July 6.
Starting July 7, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Section 301 panel will hold public hearings on the matter.
The new tariffs could threaten the trade truce Mr. Trump struck with China during a summit last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which included Beijing’s promise to buy at least $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually through 2028.
China pushed back against allegations of forced labor, saying the U.S. should resolve such claims through trade negotiations rather than unilaterally imposing tariffs.
“So-called forced labor does not exist in China, and we oppose using this as a pretext for political manipulation,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press briefing Wednesday in Beijing.
Ms. Mao added that “economic and trade issues should be resolved through dialogue and consultation on the basis of equality, mutual respect and reciprocity.”
European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill called the tariff proposal “unjustified” and said the EU was analyzing the findings of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s investigation. Mr. Gill added that in 2024, the EU banned products made with forced labor.
A spokesperson for Japan’s trade office said it was in contact with Washington about the matter.
The move is Mr. Trump’s biggest step to revive the tariffs he imposed during his first year in office, before the Supreme Court ruled they were unconstitutional. In its ruling, the court said Mr. Trump exceeded his authority by imposing the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The tariffs proposed late Tuesday cited Section 301 of the Trade Act, a separate legal authority, to impose the new levies. A separate set of 301 investigations is examining excess manufacturing capacity among U.S. trading partners, and the findings are expected to be released soon.
Even more tariffs could result from that inquiry, which would be added to those imposed as part of the forced labor investigation.
Mr. Trump announced the latest round of levies at a complex time for the global economy. Financial markets are already skittish over the Iran war, which has sent energy prices soaring worldwide.
In the U.S., inflation increased at its fastest pace in nearly three years in April, driven by the higher energy prices caused by the conflict.
Surging price pressures are eroding household income and restraining consumer spending. Inflation hit 3.8% in April, its highest level since May 2023.
Tariffs often increase the cost of goods, though the Trump team has argued that the pain is temporary, with the tariffs forcing companies to scale up their U.S. manufacturing operations and reducing costs in the long term.
Business groups say tariffs increase their compliance costs and make doing business more expensive, with those costs passed on to the consumer.
“Applying a single investigatory framework across 60 economies, including long-standing US allies and parties to existing bilateral trade agreements, will create significant compliance uncertainty for businesses operating in global supply chains,” International Chamber of Commerce Secretary-General John Denton said in a statement Wednesday.
New tariffs could rekindle fears of inflation, especially ahead of what is expected to be a contentious midterm election battle in November. Democrats have campaigned on reducing the high cost of living, which threatens to upend Republican control of the House and Senate.
A Democratic victory in November would likely derail Mr. Trump’s agenda for the remainder of his term.
The proposed tariffs could add pressure on consumer prices, UBS economist Paul Donovan wrote in an investor note. He said the earlier tariffs were passed on to consumers, but after the Supreme Court removed them, prices did not fall, allowing companies to achieve higher profit margins.
“A critical question is what this means for the U.S. consumer,” Mr. Donovan wrote. “Certainly, there is little evidence that past price increases were rolled back when the last wave of tariffs were declared to be illegal. Once a tariff has been passed through to the consumer, it tends to stick … and becomes a boost to profits if that tariff was reversed.”
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