US president Donald Trump has announced plans for more sweeping tariffs of between 10 per cent and 12.5 per cent on 60 countries including Ireland over forced labour concerns.
The US Trade Department said the tariffs are being proposed against countries it alleges have not taken action to tackle the importing of goods made with forced labour.
The threatened tariffs mark the latest move by Trump to impose levies after the US Supreme Court ruled in February that his “liberation day” tariffs were illegal.
He has since introduced blanket 10 per cent tariffs worldwide, which took effect on February 24th, though these were also ruled to be unlawful by the US trade court, which is now being appealed.
The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable
The new set of threatened tariffs would affect major US trading partners such as the UK, Canada, EU, Japan, Norway, Taiwan and India.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said: “The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable.
“This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.
“We will no longer tolerate this disparity.”
He said while some countries have taken steps to address this, “each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labour globally”.
The US is now consulting on the proposed tariffs, with hearings due on July 7th.
It follows an investigation by the US into 60 trading partners related to the “failure of various economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour”.