Trump threatens tariffs on 60 trading partners including UK and Canada over ‘forced labour’

• 01Trump threatened tariffs of 10-12.5% on 60 trading partners including the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, Japan, Norway, Taiwan, and China, citing alleged forced labour failures.
• 02The EU stated it expected the US to respect the tariff deal entered into in July and argued that the new tariffs breached the spirit of that agreement.
• 03The US Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs were illegal.
• 04Trump imposed 10% across-the-board tariffs in response, but the US trade court found those unlawful in the following month, though they remain in place during appeal.
• 05US trade representative Jamieson Greer said: '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.'
• 06A 98-page report found that only Canada, Ecuador, EU, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan have not failed to impose a forced labor import prohibition.
• 07The report specified that the EU, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and UK would face 10% tariffs, while 12.5% levies would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland.
• 08The European Commission said it 'fully shares' US concerns about forced labour but 'considers tariffs imposed on these grounds to be unjustified'.
• 09The UK government stated it had already tackled forced labour through legislation including the Modern Slavery Act.

These words or phrases carry political, emotional, or ideological loading in the original article. Use Link Launderer to see them highlighted in context.

Trump announced proposed tariffs of 10-12.5% on 60 trading partners, including major allies like the UK, EU, and Australia, citing failures to address forced labour in imports. The proposal uses section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 as legal authority, allowing Trump to circumvent previous court rulings that found his tariff actions unlawful. The EU and UK stated they already have forced labour protections in place and that the tariffs breach existing trade agreements, while the US trade representative argued that trading partners have created an unlevel playing field for American workers.