Governments Push Back Against US Forced Labour Tariffs • 360 Mozambique

The governments of Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, along with several other capitals worldwide, have condemned new customs duties imposed by the United States administration on Thursday, grounded in a prohibition on importing goods produced with forced labour.

“Japanese industry and trade operate in compliance with international rules. Japan regrets that this latest measure imposes customs duties on it solely on the grounds that no prohibition exists on importing products resulting from forced labour,” said Japanese government spokesman Minoru Kihara.

“Japan and the United States share the conviction that the agreement concluded last year is universal and that both parties remain committed to its implementation,” Kihara added when speaking to journalists.

Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell described the new tariffs imposed by its US ally as “unjustified”. “These tariffs are unjustified, incompatible with our free trade agreement, and must be revoked,” he said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also criticised the new tariffs, calling them “extremely disappointing” and accusing Washington of failing to present “meaningful evidence to support the forced labour allegations” — the stated justification for the measures, which cover more than 99% of US imports. “Tariffs are not the solution: they increase costs and heighten uncertainty for businesses,” he added.

Dominic LeBlanc, the Canadian minister responsible for negotiations between Canada, the United States and Mexico under the trilateral trade agreement, said on Thursday that Washington’s move “is not unexpected” and stressed that Canada shares the United States’ objective of preventing goods produced with forced labour from entering the supply chain.

Canada, like Mexico, continues to pursue a parallel track in trade negotiations with the US. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Thursday that the country is intensifying negotiations with Washington to reach a comprehensive trade deal, but warned that Canada is prepared to respond should President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 50% tariffs on Canadian goods materialise on 19 August — the deadline set by the White House on Monday.

“Everything is on the table” if an agreement cannot be reached before the tariffs take effect. “We do not need to respond in advance,” Carney said. “In fact, I think that at this stage, responding in advance would be counterproductive,” he added.

Mexico, for its part, confirmed on Thursday through its Secretariat of Economy that it had avoided the application of the new tariffs, retaining preferential treatment for exports that comply with the trilateral agreement it shares with Canada and the US — known as the USMCA in the United States and the T-MEC in Mexico.

Although Mexico appears on the list of economies subject to the new tariffs, the ministry clarified that approximately 85% of its exports to the US market will continue to benefit from zero tariffs as they comply with the USMCA. The remaining products that do not meet the treaty’s provisions will continue to face a 10% tariff, the same rate that applied under Section 122.

Brazil was among the first governments to react to the new tariffs, accusing Washington of using the fight against forced labour as a pretext to justify protectionist trade policy.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that, “faced with the lack of a domestic legal basis to support its protectionist trade policy”, the United States “chose to manipulate such an important issue” in order to impose a new levy.

Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the country “has a robust institutional labour framework” and that it “will negotiate” with the US to be excluded from the list of 60 affected economies. “The government of Chile considers that the application of this measure to our country is not consistent with these standards, nor with the technical, political and legal background presented throughout this investigation process,” the ministry said.

The new tariffs of 10% and 12.5%, announced by the administration of President Donald Trump, cover more than 80 countries and took effect on Friday, replacing the temporary global 10% tariff. The new duties result from 60 individual investigations conducted by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) under Section 301.

In practice, these 60 investigations cover more than 80 countries, as one of the targeted economies is the European Union, which brings its 27 member states into scope.

The measures are divided between 17 economies subject to the 10% rate — on the basis that they have rules or partial regimes combating forced labour, including the EU, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Mexico and Argentina — and a further ten countries benefiting from the same rate by virtue of bilateral trade agreements containing commitments on the matter. The remaining economies and blocs, among them Brazil, China and Japan, are subject to the maximum rate of 12.5%.