America’s trading partners are incredulous over the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) recently concluded investigation into claims of forced labor—and the tariffs that will follow as a result of the probe.
This week, the USTR announced the results of its Section 301 investigation into 60 nations, saying “all of the investigated economies have failed” to impose or adequately enforce forced labor bans on imports. They will face new duties ranging from 10 percent to 12.5 percent.
But U.S. trading partners are pushing back on the investigation’s findings and accusing President Donald Trump of using the Section 301 investigations as a smokescreen for his tariff agenda, which has been hobbled in recent months by legal challenges from within his own country. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs were invalidated by the Supreme Court in February, while the global Section 122 duties, imposed days later, have been deemed unlawful by the Court of International Trade—a decision the administration said it plans to appeal.
China, which stands at the center of the Section 301 investigation over bipartisan allegations of forced labor across its supply chains, swiftly denied the results of the USTR’s inquisition, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying Wednesday, “There is no such thing as ‘forced labor’ in China, and we oppose using it as a pretext for political manipulation.”
The country opposes all unilateral tariff measures, Ning added.” No one stands to gain from a tariff war or a trade war. Economic and trade issues should be worked out through dialogue and consultation on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” she said.
China will face new 12.5 percent tariffs for both a failure to impose and effectively carry out a ban on imports made with forced labor, though the country has long been accused of making, mining and exporting, rather than importing, such products, acting as the nucleus for their dissemination across global supply chains.
The EU, which will face 10 percent duties, faces the lower rate in part because it is in the midst of finalizing the Framework on an Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair, and Balanced Trade. The pact was brokered through a handshake deal between Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last summer at the American leader’s golf club in Turnberry, Scotland.
Bernd Lange, chairman of the European Parliament’s trade committee, didn’t mince words in denying the EU’s failure to enforce forced labor prohibitions, calling the accusation “absurd.”
“Results of the new US Section 301 investigation into the EU’s allegedly insufficient measures against forced labor show one thing above all: If it doesn’t fit, make it fit. After defeat before the Supreme Court, Washington is searching for new legal foundations for its tariff policy,” he wrote on X.
The finalization of the so-called Turnberry agreement was put on pause due to the dismantling of the IEEPA tariffs. EU lawmakers have scuffled over its details in recent months, but on Tuesday, members of the European Parliament’s international trade committee agreed to ratify the terms of the deal, which nixes tariffs on hundreds of American imports while establishing a blanket tariff of 15 percent on European goods imported into the U.S.
Now finally in the home stretch, Lange urged that the U.S. “must adhere to the agreements with Scotland,” calling anything else “unacceptable.”
On the sidelines of a ministerial meeting at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris on Thursday, USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer responded to Lange’s sentiments. The trade framework acknowledges that the U.S. can impose tariffs up to a certain rate, he said.
“We understand that a deal is a deal. We want to make sure that we’re able to resolve the trading practices that are identified as problematic in our investigations and we are going to take into account the Turnberry deal, of course, because we believe that the Turnberry deal addresses a lot of these issues,” he said, according to Politico.
