New duties on imports from dozens of countries take effect this week, closing the gap left after the Supreme Court struck down the President's earlier tariff authority
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today welcomed the Trump administration’s new round of tariffs as an important recognition that free trade between countries with varying labor standards has been a failure.
Beginning at 12:01 AM EDT today, Friday, July 24, the U.S. will begin to collect duties of 10% to 12.5% on imports from most trading partners, tied to a Section 301 investigation that examined whether roughly 60 economies have failed to police forced labor in their supply chains. Trading partners judged to have inadequate enforcement, including Mexico, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India, will face a 10% duty, while countries found to lack forced-labor import bans altogether will be charged 12.5%. Partners with existing negotiated trade agreements, including Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, the European Union, and Taiwan, will see duties applied in a manner consistent with those deals. Fuel, food, fertilizer, and goods already covered by sector-specific tariffs on autos, metals, and pharmaceuticals are excluded, as are goods covered under the North American trade agreement.
CPA notes that the United States first banned forced labor imports in the McKinley Tariff of 1890. Ever since that time, politicians promoting free trade deals have promised Americans that new trade deals would lift labor standards in the other country and create a “level playing field” to pit American labor against its foreign counterpart. These promises failed, and instead even notorious purveyors of widespread forced labor were granted unlimited, duty-free access to the American market.
“Blanket zero-for-zero tariff deals with countries that have lower labor standards never made sense,” said Zach Mottl, chairman of the Coalition for a Prosperous America. “This administration has done more than any other to reverse that race to the bottom, first through repealing the de minimis loophole and now through this new tariff action highlighting countries’ varying commitment to labor rights.”
“The administration’s new labor tariff action is an important acknowledgment that the unlimited duty-free tariff era is over,” said Jon Toomey, president of CPA. “Critics in Congress should explain why putting American workers, farmers and ranchers into unfettered price competition with like-product producers in other countries makes sense.”
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