After Canada and Brazil, around sixty economies in turn found themselves targeted by new customs duties on Friday July 24, at a time when the temporary surcharges put in place by Donald Trump in February expire.
These countries in fact see a surcharge of 10% or 12.5% applied to a certain number of their products entering the United States. Those already on their way to the world’s largest economy will not be affected if they arrive at their destination before July 28.
Even before they came into force, Australia, Japan and New Zealand – three allies of the United States in Asia – strongly denounced these new tariff barriers. Canberra finds them “unjustified”, Wellington “extremely disappointing” and Tokyo “regrets” them.
These surcharges take over from the 10% customs duties imposed last February, which expired at the same time. These temporary customs duties, lasting 150 days, were put in place by Donald Trump following the Supreme Court’s decision to cancel the majority of the surcharges implemented since his return to the White House.
Forced labor
This new surcharge is the result of an investigation, launched in mid-March by the White House Trade Representative (USTR), Jamieson Greer, to determine whether the United States’ trading partners had completely eliminated products resulting from forced labor from their supply chains.
“We are looking to put an end to the trade in these types of products,” Jamieson Greer explained on CNN. “If you allow the importation of goods made from forced labor, it creates unfair competition against your own products. We want all countries to have the same type of protections,” he added.
Countries with legislation that the United States considers incomplete are subject to a 10% tax on a certain number of their products. This will particularly be the case for countries in the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Mexico and Canada, some of the United States’ most important trading partners.
For the others, i.e. around forty countries, the products will be subject to 12.5%. China, Japan, Switzerland and South Korea are, for example, concerned. Energy and raw materials that are not produced in the United States, however, should be excluded from the list of affected products.
