U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest set of tariffs has provoked heated objections from America’s trading partners. The administration late Thursday announced tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 countries. Trump says they failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor. Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell has slammed them as unjustified. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the U.S. has not given meaningful evidence to support the allegations against dozens of countries accounting for 99% of products imported into the U.S. Japan's chief government spokesperson says the move was regrettable. The new tariffs took effect just as Trump's temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expired at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
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Trump imposes double-digit tariffs on dozens of countries as his 10% levies are set to expire Friday
President Donald Trump is going ahead with new double-digit tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners just as the clock runs out Friday on stopgap levies he imposed after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court. The United States will impose taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 countries, charging that they have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labor. The new tariffs come as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Trump had turned to those levies after the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs in February. Now he’s tapping more durable tariffs under a 1974 trade law.
FILE - People from China, Vietnam and Ethiopia, believed to have been trafficked and forced to work in scam centers, sit with their faces masked while in detention after being released from the centers in Myawaddy district in eastern Myanmar, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanaphon Wuttison, File)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection slapped rare detention orders on goods imported from an unprecedented five countries in one day based on allegations that people producing those items might be children, or adults subjected to forced labor.