The Trump administration plans to impose new tariffs on dozens of countries just after midnight ET on Friday for alleged forced labor violations, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
The tariffs, set between 10% and 12.5%, would effectively replace President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% global tariff, which is set to expire at the same time the new tariffs go into effect.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced in a fact sheet Thursday afternoon that the upcoming tariffs will apply to 60 trading partners and cover 99.4% of U.S. trade. The agency separately told CNBC it could not provide an estimate of how much revenue the new tariffs would generate.
A senior Trump administration official told reporters in a phone call early Thursday that the move is “the most extensive international labor rights action ever taken by the United States and by any country.”
The official noted that the new tariffs would not be applied “on top of” existing import taxes on steel and aluminum, known as Section 232 tariffs, which President Trump imposed last year on national security grounds.
Thursday’s announcement underscores how the Trump administration is once again ramping up its aggressive use of tariffs after the president’s protectionist policies suffered a major legal setback earlier this year. President Trump has long touted tariffs as an important means of generating revenue and gaining influence over foreign trading partners, but has ignored criticism that they tax U.S. importers and raise prices for U.S. consumers.
The White House recently imposed a 25% tariff on most U.S. imports from Brazil, effective Wednesday, and a 50% tariff on a wide range of goods from Canada, set to begin next month.
The Trump administration had proposed the next round of tariffs in early June after concluding that target countries were not effectively banning the use of forced labor practices in their trade with the United States.
The new tariffs, imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, are one of the trade tools President Trump has used since the Supreme Court struck down his global Emancipation Day mandate on February 20.
Hours after losing the case, an enraged President Trump said he would impose 10% tariffs worldwide under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. But the tariffs came with a 150-day timer and were set to expire at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday.
In March, the Trump administration announced two separate Section 301 investigations. One is a forced labor investigation, and the other focuses on concerns about excess manufacturing capacity in 16 countries. The latter investigation has not yet been finalized.
“We are committed to continuing to impose tariffs and negotiate a deal to help reindustrialize our economy, protect American workers, raise wages, and reduce our trade deficit,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer said in Senate testimony Wednesday.
