Trump Opens Hearings On Tariffing 60 Nations Over Forced Labor, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That Americans Were Fighting It Without Paying Extra At Checkout

The Filing

WASHINGTON. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened three days of public hearings Tuesday on a plan to place tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent on goods from 60 economies found to have inadequately prohibited forced labor, a humanitarian initiative the administration has arranged to be paid for entirely by the Americans who buy the goods in question.

The proposal, first published June 2 under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, identifies 60 nations whose failure to bar imports made with forced labor now, in the administration's determination, unfairly burdens U.S. commerce, a burden officials propose to correct by adding a surcharge to those imports and collecting it at the American cash register. The public was invited to submit written objections by July 6, one day before the hearings at which the objections would be heard.

"This is about standing up for workers," said one official within the administration, referring to workers overseas, and not to the American workers whose overtime protections the administration rescinded, whose National Labor Relations Board it left without a quorum, or whose grocery budgets the tariff is expected to raise. "We will not allow exploitation to go unpunished," the official added, describing a punishment structured to land on the consumer rather than the exploiter.

Under the plan, economies that pledge cooperation through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade would receive the discounted 10 percent rate, while all others would pay 12.5 percent, an arrangement in which a country's treatment of its own workers matters somewhat less than its willingness to sign a document with the President. A separate "textile mechanism" would allow a set volume of apparel and textiles to enter at a reduced rate, ensuring that the war on forced labor pauses politely at the clothing aisle.

Trade economists noted that the tariff, like all tariffs, is paid by the importer and passed to the shopper, meaning the financial consequences of forced labor in 60 nations would fall chiefly on Americans who did not commit it and cannot locate most of the nations on a map. Administration officials countered that the moral clarity of the effort was in no way diminished by the fact that someone else was paying for it.

At press time, the administration had unveiled a bold new campaign to combat child labor abroad, to be funded by a modest fee applied to every American who purchases a toy.

Who Benefits

§Donald Trump, who gains a humanitarian banner to drape over what functions as a tax on American shoppers, along with fresh leverage to press 60 governments into signing "Agreements on Reciprocal Trade."
§The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, whose power to tax imports by executive determination now reaches a fifth of the world's economies in a single proceeding.
§U.S. manufacturers that compete with the 60 targeted economies, handed 10 to 12.5 percent in price protection without lowering their own prices or altering their own labor practices.
§Trade lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants, made indispensable to any company now seeking a carveout, a textile exemption, or the discounted rate.
§Foreign governments willing to sign a Reciprocal Trade agreement, rewarded with the lower tariff for their cooperation rather than for any change in how their workers are treated.
§The U.S. Treasury, which collects the duties in full, every dollar of them paid at the register by the American consumer.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment