WASHINGTON — The U.S. will collect duties of between 10% and 12.5% on imports from most major trading partners, its biggest move yet to reconstruct President Donald Trump’s tariff wall that was struck down by the Supreme Court.

The new levies follow an investigation into the alleged failure of around 60 economies to prevent forced labor in their supply chains to the detriment of American workers. Goods from some 10 trading partners deemed to have adopted forced-labor restrictions will be subject to 10% tariffs, including Mexico, the U.K., Canada and India.

Duties on items from the European Union and Taiwan won’t exceed 10% and products from Japan, Switzerland and South Korea will be broadly capped at 12.5%, in a way that complies with the trade agreements they reached with the U.S., according to a Federal Register notice published Thursday.

Products from dozens of others will face a 12.5% charge, with certain other duties stacking on top. The formula also allows for some exemptions, such as for products that can’t be produced in the U.S. or where tariffs would cause economy-wide disruptions.

The rates under the new authority took effect Friday at 12:01 a.m. New York time, according to the notice. The levies won’t apply to certain goods already loaded onto vessels before that time.

Asian nations described the Trump administration’s latest tariffs as baseless and unjustified, while stopping short of any retaliatory moves.

The decision “is very disappointing but not unexpected. President Trump campaigned on tariffs and this is the consequence,” said New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay. Australia called the action “unjustified” and inconsistent with its free trade agreement, according to a statement from Trade Minister Don Farrell, who said the U.S. should remove the new duty.

Singapore pushed back against the new tax, with Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan saying there was no economic justification for the action. Japan also signaled its displeasure and is seeking reassurances that the levies are in keeping with the deal it struck with the U.S. last year.

The forced-labor duties are Trump’s broadest move toward restoring his protectionist tariff regime since his earlier levies were struck down by the high court. After that setback he instituted a 10% global import tax, which expires Friday. The timing of the new charges ensures there will be no gap between the two.

“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “It’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same.”

One senior administration official rejected the idea that Trump was imposing the new tariffs purely as a replacement to the earlier duties that were struck down, but also said the president would use all the tools at his disposal and won’t allow his trade policy to be undermined by a court decision.

The official suggested the administration had planned to impose the forced-labor tariffs in any case and was rolling them out now to avoid upheaval for U.S. businesses.

The administration telegraphed the move last month, when it released the outcome of its forced-labor investigation. Thursday’s annoucement contained changes from the original proposal, including India securing a 10% levy instead of an initially threatened 12.5%.

Imports such as fuel, foods and fertilizers will be exempt from the new tariffs, as well as products such as automobiles, metals and drugs that are covered by separate, industry-specific levies. Items covered by the North American trade agreement with Mexico and Canada will also be excluded.

Exemption requests

The Trump administration has received numerous requests for thousands of further exemptions, that official said. The plan will include global and country-specific exemptions based on commitments from existing deals Trump struck with foreign governments, according to the official.

In a statement, the E.U. noted that its tariff, capped at 10%, complies with bilateral trade deal the transatlantic partners hammered out over the past year. “It also provides positive momentum to continue the work on exploring further tariff exemptions and deepening cooperation across a broad range of areas,” the statement from Brussels said.

Greer is spearheading Trump’s redesigned trade policy, targeting unfair practices abroad using more legally tested statutes that require months of procedures and public engagement. The more deliberative approach stands in contrast to the immediacy and unpredictability of Trump’s tariff barrages through much of 2025.

Still, that may not stop some importers from challenging the new duties in court.

Saddling American importers with costs carries risks politically for Trump and his fellow Republicans, less than four months from midterm elections where the focus for Democrats is the elevated cost of living. That pressure is intensifying as the Iran war makes energy, food and other commodities more expensive.

Blake Harden, a trade expert with the consultancy Ernst & Young, said Trump isn’t finished with tariffs or disrupting the status quo.

Much ‘uncertainty’

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty hanging out there. We still have the opportunity for a lot of tariffs this year,” she said. “Prior to this week there was sort of just a bit of a lull and maybe it felt like there was more certainty than there is. There’s this thing I keep telling folks: There’s a lot to come still as we get into this year.”

USTR proposed the latest duties following a probe under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. That report recommended a 12.5% duty for countries deemed to lack laws that ban imports produced with forced labor. A 10% import tax was recommended for products from economies that have such bans in place but don’t sufficiently enforce them, or have committed to doing so.

Countries from India to Norway have pushed back against the allegations. In Canada, a bill introduced in June is designed to strengthen the government’s “ability to identify, intercept and prohibit goods linked to forced labor at the border, while providing certainty and transparency for businesses operating in or trading with Canada,” according to a public filing in the case.

The White House’s decision comes on the heels of a July 15 announcement that the U.S., also invoking Section 301, will begin charging importers a 25% tariff on imports of certain goods from Brazil following an investigation alleging that the country engaged in unfair trade practices.

The raft of 301 investigations includes a review of US trading partners’ excess manufacturing capacity, though it’s unclear when the findings of that probe will be released, or whether any future duties from that investigation would be stacked on top of those proposed under the forced labor investigation.

Greer said recently that the excess capacity probe is taking longer than the investigation into forced labor. “We’re trying to make sure that we’re actually living up to the letter of the law,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television last week.

This week, Trump proposed tariffs on Canadian goods under a never-before-used trade authority — Section 338 — though those would only affect about 5% of US imports from its northern neighbor and would take effect Aug. 19 depending on how negotiations go.

Complicating the rollout are several deals the Trump administration negotiated with economies including Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and the European Union. Greer has said Washington would abide by commitments made in those agreements.

Earlier on Thursday, Greer lashed out at the E.U. in a statement focused on other issues, saying a European Commission announcement of a fine against Alphabet Inc.’s Google and a recent “state-backed” loan to Toulouse, France-based Airbus SE risk undermining transatlantic trade stability.

Meanwhile, US Customs and Border Protection is currently issuing refunds on Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs that the high court ruled illegal in February.

Thursday’s announcement was largely expected and analysts noted the new tariff regime leaves the overall duty on imports roughly the same.

“Tonight’s tariffs are more noise than shock,” said Olu Sonola, head of US economics at Fitch Ratings.

“The real risk lies ahead. Excess-capacity tariffs are likely still to come and would stack on top of today’s measures,” Sonola said in a statement. “If they are broad enough to push tariff rates back toward 2025 levels, uncertainty will rise sharply and the hit to growth and inflation will become much harder to dismiss, especially if energy prices stay higher for longer.”

—With assistance from Shawn Donnan, Derek Wallbank and Richard Bravo.

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