US announces new forced-labour tariffs

US imposes new forced-labour tariffs, Trump administration targets EU and other major partners after Supreme Court blocks earlier duties, trade policing shifts from courts to import prices

The US has announced new tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on goods from dozens of trading partners, citing concerns about forced labour in global supply chains. According to the BBC, the list of affected partners includes the UK, the EU, Canada and Japan, and the measures follow an investigation launched in March into 60 economies that together account for almost all goods sold to the US.

The announcement is the second major tariff move since the US Supreme Court struck down many of President Donald Trump’s previous duties in February, forcing the administration to rebuild its trade strategy on narrower legal ground. The US Trade Department said the targeted partners had failed to impose legal prohibitions on importing goods made wholly or partly with forced labour, and failed to enforce such prohibitions effectively. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer framed the policy as a response to American workers competing “on an unlevel playing field” when imports are linked to coerced labour.

For European exporters, the immediate question is not only the new rates but the precedent: a labour-standard rationale can be applied broadly, and the BBC reports the administration has treated the issue as a systemic failure across 60 partners. That breadth matters because it turns what might have been product-by-product enforcement into a general import tax, with compliance costs and price effects spread across normal trade rather than concentrated on a small set of sanctioned goods. Critics cited by the BBC argue the tariff approach has already contributed to price rises in the US and elsewhere, a familiar pattern when border taxes are used to settle disputes that used to be handled through targeted bans, audits, or customs detentions.

The forced-labour framing also lands in a transatlantic relationship already strained by repeated tariff cycles. After the Supreme Court ruling, Trump announced a temporary global tariff set at 10%—later talked up to 15% but implemented at 10%—and the BBC notes it is due to expire in July unless Congress extends it. The new forced-labour tariffs arrive at lower rates than initially expected, but they widen the menu of duties at a moment when companies are still adjusting contracts, pricing and shipping schedules to the last round.

The administration’s own timeline underscores how much of this is now being run as an executive process: an investigation in March, a determination that all 60 partners failed, then tariffs applied across the board. The practical enforcement will be visible not in press conferences but in customs paperwork and invoice lines, where “forced labour” becomes a tariff category and the cost shows up as a higher landed price.

The new duties take effect at 10% to 12.5%, and the temporary 10% global tariff still has a July expiry date. For importers, that means two separate clocks are now running on the same supply chain.