US to impose new tariffs of up to 12.5% on 60 trading partners, including Thailand, on Friday
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- The US will impose new tariffs of 10% or 12.5% on goods from 60 top trading partners on Friday, citing their alleged failure to ban imports made with forced labour.
- The 60 targeted partners—including China, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Switzerland and Taiwan—account for roughly 99% of US imports, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
- Most partners face the 12.5% rate, while about 20 countries including Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia and Mexico get the lower 10% rate because the administration views them as having taken stronger legal steps against forced labour.
- Japan and South Korea receive the higher 12.5% rate but receive a carve-out: items already subject to tariffs of 12.5% or higher are exempted from the new measure.
- China receives no preferential treatment, meaning the new 12.5% tariff will stack on top of existing import taxes.
- The tariffs replace the temporary 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which was set to expire at 12:01am Friday after the Supreme Court invalidated Trump's sweeping country-specific "reciprocal" duties.
- USTR Jamieson Greer said the US has enforced a forced-labour import ban for nearly a century and argued it is "well past time for our trading partners to do the same," as the administration pursues more durable country-by-country duties under Section 301.
- The new tariff will not apply to imports already hit by sector-specific national-security duties such as automobiles and steel.
Why it matters: The two-tier structure punishes or rewards 60 countries based on each one's forced-labour legal regime, and the carve-outs expose the policy's real priorities: Japan and South Korea get exemptions on existing-tariff items to soften the blow, while China is singled out by having the 12.5% stack on top of existing duties. The administration is also using this forced-labour probe as a legal bridge from the expired Section 122 authority toward longer-lasting Section 301 country-by-country duties.
