News / US rejects EU objections to proposed forced labour tariffs on imports

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US trade representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer has pushed back on EU criticism that proposed tariffs of 10% on the bloc – over alleged failures to stamp out the use of forced labour in supply chains – conflict with an agreement struck between them last year.

As reported by The Loadstar, the EU and 59 countries are facing a new, additional tariff rate of 10%-12.5% on all goods for either failing to introduce or failing to properly impose legislation prohibiting trade in goods that have benefited from forced labour.

Announced yesterday, the new tariff rate sparked outcry from across Europe, with an EU spokesperson describing them as unjustified, and chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade Bernd Lange labelling them “utterly absurd”.

Responding to the criticism, Mr Greer said that the deal between the EU and US, known as the Turnberry Agreement, included the bloc’s recognition that the US “can impose tariffs up to a certain level”, adding: “We understand that a deal is a deal.

“We want to make sure we’re able to resolve trading practices identified as problematic in our investigations and we are going to take into account the Turnberry deal, of course, because we believe the Turnberry deal addresses a lot of these issues,” Mr Greer said.

The tariff threat follows a USTR investigation that determined Australia and the UK would be subjected to a 12.5% rate after failing to push through laws to address forced labour practices, joining 52 other countries on the same rate, including China, Japan, and India.

Canada, Ecuador, the EU, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan have all been flagged as introducing, but failing to properly enforce, legislation resulting in the “unlevel playing field” the US action is pushing back against.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the import of goods made with forced labour… creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” Mr Greer noted.

“We will no longer tolerate it.  Some trading partners have taken initial steps to prevent the import of forced labour goods.  However, each of our trading partners must do more to ensure trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labour globally.”