Washington: The United States will increase tariffs on Australian products to 12.5 per cent under the guise of human rights, after the US trade office determined Australia and 59 other countries were not doing enough to eliminate forced labour.
The decision means tariffs on Australian goods will rise from 10 per cent, which was the rate set under a temporary measure after the Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” were unlawful.
The Australian government made a submission arguing that Australia maintained a robust legal architecture against modern slavery, albeit in a different form to the US. It also pointed out that Australia and the US have a 20-year-old free trade agreement.
But in a notice issued on Thursday (Washington time), the US trade office said it had decided to impose the tariffs anyway, based on public comments, testimony, the advice of its own committee, “and in accordance with the specific direction of the President”.
Dozens of other countries were hit with the new forced labour tariffs, though many escaped with a lower 10 per cent rate, including Argentina, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
In a statement, US Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer said Trump recognised that decades of moral urging had not eradicated forced labour from global supply chains. But he was encouraged that some countries had moved quickly to adopt a US-style ban.
“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” Greer said.
“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere.”
The order contained an annex with a number of product exemptions.
The forced labour tariffs – which were proposed early last month – were widely viewed as a tool to sidestep the Supreme Court decision, which torpedoed Trump’s signature economic and revenue raising policy.
They are imposed using Section 301 of the Trade Act, which allows the US to combat unfair trade practices by other countries, rather than the sweeping presidential emergency powers Trump used for his earlier “reciprocal” tariffs.
More to come
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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