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In one of the previous times hit other countries with reciprocal tariffs, he did it in chart form. (Picture: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\nThe Trump administration on Friday will impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including Britain and the European Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans.<\/p>\n
The move \u2060is the White House\u2019s latest effort to restore President Donald Trump\u2019s vision of a near-global tariff after the US Supreme Court in February struck down his \u201creciprocal\u201d duties of 10% to 50% imposed last year.<\/p>\n
The new tariffs will cover 99.4% of US imports, but include numerous exemptions, such as oil and gas, fertiliser and certain food items.<\/p>\n
In one of the previous times hit other countries with reciprocal tariffs, he did it in chart form. (Picture: Brendan Smialowski\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
What does Trump\u2019s new ruling mean?<\/p>\n
Imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the new duties allow the administration \u2060to maintain a tariff floor on virtually all US imports.<\/p>\n
The \u200btariffs \u2060are also likely to face less legal risk than those struck down in February, as Section 301 has survived prior court challenges.<\/p>\n
Trump responded to the February Supreme Court ruling by imposing a temporary 10% tariff for 150 days that expires at 12:01 am EDT on Friday (0501 BST).<\/p>\n
The new \u2060duties will take effect at that exact same moment, with goods in transit exempted until 12:01 am EDT (0501 BST) on July 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States has had \u200ba forced labour \u2060import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it. \u200cIt\u2019s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,\u201d US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greer has previously pledged that for countries that have reached trade deals with \u200cWashington that have capped US tariff rates, the new forced labour duties would not push them \u200cabove those caps. The deals include anti-forced labor provisions.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_288268814.jpg\")
The European Union has been targeted in these Trump tariffs. (Picture: Yves Herman\/Reuters)<\/p>\n
Who else will be hit?<\/p>\n
Under the final determination, in addition to Britain, the US will impose a 10% duty on goods of Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n
The EU, along with Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland were assigned rates that, combined with pre-existing most-favoured-nation tariff rates, would total 10% or 12.5%.<\/p>\n
The other 38 countries, including China, were assigned \u2060a 12.5% rate.<\/p>\n
Why are they doing it now?<\/p>\n
A senior Trump administration official disputed suggestions that the forced labour tariffs were simply a direct replacement for the expiring levies despite the timing, similar duty rates and vast coverage of nearly all US imports.<\/p>\n
The official said the US has stronger import bans on goods made with forced labour and enforces them more rigidly than any other country, giving rivals an unfair trading advantage over the US.<\/p>\n
Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been calling for the eradication of forced labour from global supply chains, \u201cso we\u2019re really responding to that call,\u201d the official \u200csaid.<\/p>\n
The official added that Trump would \u201calways use the tools at his disposal to achieve his trade policy objectives, and that includes tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Oil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SEI_301495062.jpg\")
Oil and gas will be among the items exempt. (Picture: Jane Barlow\/PA)<\/p>\n
What will be exempt?<\/p>\n
Many goods will \u200bbe exempted from the duties, including oil and gas, fertiliser, certain foodstuffs and goods that are already subject to Section 232 national security tariffs, \u200csuch as autos, steel, aluminum and copper, the official said.<\/p>\n
Other goods that \u2060comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade will also be exempted because of the highly integrated North American supply chain and high levels of \u2060US content in the goods.<\/p>\n
The final Section 301 unfair trade practices tariffs largely track the forced labour duties proposed on June 1.<\/p>\n
Goods from countries that have passed adequate anti-forced labour laws will be levied at \u200cthe lower 10% rate, and imports from those \u200bwith inadequate bans will be subject to the higher 12.5% rate.<\/p>\n
Recent actions and legislation \u200cby some countries, including India, moved them to the 10% tariff rate \u200bsince the duties were first proposed.<\/p>\n
After public hearings on the forced labour duties, the Trade Representative\u2019s office also added some new exemptions, including for pig iron, certain sugar products, animal and seed products and certain chemicals.<\/p>\n
With input from Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration on Friday will impose new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,361,254,507,38451,1574],"class_list":["post-89252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-tariffs","tag-trump-tariffs","tag-us-politics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116972562881702600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}