US to impose new tariffs under Section 301 investigations

NEW YORK -- The United States will impose tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent on imported goods from 60 economies starting on Friday, citing Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said Thursday.

The new trade measures are scheduled to take effect just as temporary 10 percent worldwide tariffs expire at 12:01 am Friday. The administration of US President Donald Trump had turned to those temporary levies after the Supreme Court struck down his broader tariff initiatives in February.

By utilizing Section 301, the administration is tapping into a more durable legal mechanism that permits Trump to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in trade practices deemed "unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory," according to a USTR press release.

The USTR justified the latest levies by pointing to international labor standards.

"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," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was quoted as saying in the release. "Today's action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere."

The USTR determined that a 10 percent duty rate will be applied to investigated economies that either impose a forced labor import prohibition, have committed to enforcing such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or have imposed a partial regime to prevent the importation of certain forced labor goods.

The economies include Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom, according to the release.

A variable rate of 10 or 12.5 percent, net of the Most-Favored-Nation rate, will apply to certain non-exempted products from economies including the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland. Meanwhile, a 12.5 percent duty will be imposed on all other investigated economies.

Notably, the Trump administration also provides exemptions for certain products, such as those that could lead to domestic supply crunch or economy-wide disruption, and products that cannot be grown or produced in the United States in sufficient quantities or at reasonable prices.

In March, the USTR launched a separate, ongoing probe into whether 16 countries, which collectively account for around 70 percent of US imports, have overproduced goods, thereby pushing down global prices and placing US companies at a competitive disadvantage.