Trump imposes double-digit tariffs on dozens of countries as his 10%
levies are set to expire Friday
[July 24, 2026]
By PAUL WISEMAN and MAE ANDERSON
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 slap taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60
trading partners accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, charging that they
have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labor.
“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,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.
The new tariffs will take effect just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs
expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday. Trump had turned to those temporary levies
after the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs in
February.
Now he's tapping more durable tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act
of 1974, which permits the president to impose import taxes and other
sanctions against countries found to engage in “unjustifiable,”
“unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. Trump used Section
301 to impose big tariffs on China in his first term, and they survived
court challenges.
More Section 301 tariffs are likely coming: The U.S. Trade
Representative’s office has launched a probe into whether 16 countries —
accounting for 70% of U.S. imports — have overproduced goods, pushing
down prices and putting U.S. companies at a disadvantage in global
markets. The administration has yet to complete that investigation.
Trump, who argues that high tariffs will revive American manufacturing,
last year overturned decades of U.S. policy that favored lower tariffs
and ever-freer trade. Invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic
Powers Act, or IEEPA, he imposed double-digit tariffs on imports from
almost every country on Earth, saying America’s longstanding trade
deficit amounted to a national emergency.
But the Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA did not authorize tariffs. The
decision forced the administration to pay refunds to importers that had
paid the tariffs.
In response, Trump announced 10% worldwide tariffs under Section 122 of
the Trade Act of 1974. But he can only use Section 122 levies for 150
days; time runs out on them Friday.
The administration initially proposed the forced labor tariffs last
month. Since then, some countries have tightened forced labor
enforcement and qualified for lower tariffs, said a senior
administration official who spoke under condition of anonymity because
they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. For example,
the official said, the tariff on imports from India initially was set at
12.5% but now will be 10%.
Some products — including oil and gas and fertilizer — are exempted from
the new tariffs announced Thursday. Also being spared are products that
qualify for duty-free status under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the
North American trade pact Trump negotiated in his first term.
The tariffs drew immediate fire from critics.
“Today’s forced labor justification is too convenient to be taken
seriously,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top
Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. “Forced labor is a real
and pervasive problem in our supply chains and demands serious
enforcement. It should never be cheapened into a pretext for a tariff
policy built on dubious legal theories and personal grievances.''
Brazil, which faces a 12.5% forced-labor tariff, called the U.S. move
“arbitrary and unjustified” in a statement. It plans to trigger its
reciprocity law — which could call for retaliatory tariffs on the United
States — and take a complaint to the World Trade Organization. The
United States, the Brazilian government said, “chose to manipulate an
issue of great importance to human rights and the struggles of workers
worldwide in order to accuse 59 countries and the European Union of
unfair practices.”
Chile's Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Paula
Estévez said that the country has “solid labor institutions, a robust
regulatory framework and a firm commitment to the prevention and
eradication of forced labor.” Chile faces a 12.5% rate.
“The Government of Chile considers that the application of this measure
to our country is inconsistent with these standards, as well as with the
technical, political, and legal background presented throughout the
investigation process,” she said.
Tariffs are paid by companies in the United States that import foreign
products. The importers usually try to pass along the cost by charging
consumers higher prices. Americans are already frustrated by the high
cost of living. So the administration is taking a risk in rolling out
new tariffs ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
Human rights watchers say that it’s reasonable to be skeptical of the
motivation behind the tariffs. But they say the levies could make an
impact on the problem of forced labor.
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President Donald Trump arrives with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave
Roberts and owner Mark Walter for an event to honor the 2025 World
Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers in the Rose Garden of the White
House, Thursday, July 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex
Brandon)
The tariffs are being imposed on countries that the U.S. found
either failed to impose or failed to effectively enforce a ban on
importing goods made with forced labor.
Forced labor is defined by the International Labor Organization
Forced Labor Convention of 1930 as “all work or service which is
exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for
which the said person has not offered himself (or herself)
voluntarily.”
According to the latest statistics from the ILO, which is a U.N.
agency focused on human and labor rights, about 27.6 million people
were in forced labor worldwide on any given day in 2021.
“We’ve gone on record for years now advocating for import bans, not
as a magic bullet, it’s not a silver bullet, but as a potentially
effective tool in combating forced labor across the globe,” said
Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of The Human Trafficking
Legal Center.
“It’s possible to be extremely critical of tariffs, as we are, and
to be very concerned about blanket tariffs used as bludgeons against
countries,” she said. “And yet I think it’s undeniable that there is
a significant response in terms of the adoption of import bans.”
However, Vandenberg and her organization urged in testimony that the
tariffs be implemented in a phased approach to give countries time
to implement a ban or a plan for enforcement.
“Our concern is that the import bans will be thin slips of paper
with no enforcement,” she said. “Countries need time to build import
ban mechanisms that are meaningful and enforceable.”
In a statement, Dominic LeBlanc, the Canada-U.S. Trade Minister,
said the move “is not unexpected.”
LeBlanc said Canada shares the U.S.’s objective of ensuring that
goods produced with forced labor don’t enter the supply chain.
“We will continue engaging constructively with the United States on
this matter, as well as other outstanding issues, over the coming
weeks to the mutual benefit of our citizens,” LeBlanc said.
Kenya Davis, partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, said the Uyghur
Forced Labor Prevention Act, a U.S. federal law passed in 2021 that
prohibits the importation of goods made wholly or in part in China’s
Xinjiang region or by designated entities, is the most significant
legislation related to forced labor that the U.S. has passed before
the tariffs.
“The level of effectiveness is certainly up for debate, but it
certainly has drawn attention to the issue of labor trafficking and
forced labor,” she said. “And so, if nothing else, these import bans
will serve that function of bringing greater awareness to forced
labor.”
But without a “comprehensive approach” that provides transparency
about what the investigations consisted of, and programs that
provide countries aid in enforcing bans, “I’m very cautious in my
enthusiasm about the (tariffs),” she said.
Isabelle Glimcher, senior research scientist for global labor at the
NYU Stern Center for Human Rights, said one flaw in the tariffs is
that they focus on levying the tax on countries based on goods they
import — not goods they make domestically.
But she said the impending tariffs threat has spurred several
countries — such as India — to amend their foreign trade policies to
include a forced labor import ban. European Union forced labor
regulations due to go into effect later next year are also
contributing, she said.
“Not all of these things are necessarily or wholly attributable to
the Section 301 investigations, but does seem like countries are
responding and starting to take all of this seriously,” she said.
___
Anderson reported from New York. AP Writers Nayara Batschke in
Santiago, Chile, Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo and Jim Morris in
Vancouver, Canada, contributed to this story.
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