The White House is rolling out another tariff plan—and a new legal hook to hang it on. The Trump administration plans to slap duties of roughly 10% to 12.5% on imports from more than 80 countries at 12:01am Friday, replacing a temporary 10% global tariff set to expire at the same time. This time, the measure leans on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, the New York Times reports, which lets presidents target nations over "unreasonable" or discriminatory trade practices. Administration officials said tariffs are designed to combat other countries' use of forced labor, per the Washington Post; others contend they're part of President Trump's effort to reduce Americans' dependence on imports.
Administration officials said the goal is to punish countries that don't effectively block goods made with forced labor, arguing that puts US companies at a disadvantage. Canada and the EU—both already moving toward or claiming bans—will still face 10% tariffs, while oil, gas, some raw materials, and items covered by existing trade and national security deals are spared. Opponents on both sides of the aisle contend forced labor is a pretext for rebuilding tariffs previously rejected by courts. "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," said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, per the AP. The US does allow the use of prison labor.
The small difference in the levies against the EU and Canada, at 10%, and China, at 12.5%, suggests the forced labor issue is being used to restore tariffs the Supreme Court has struck down—"a pretext to impose tariffs that Trump wants to impose for his own economic theories and preferences," one expert said. "It's not really about forced labor," said Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown Law School and a former Biden administration official. Legal challenges are likely, per the Times.
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