The announcement was part of US President Donald Trump’s latest decision to impose new double-digit tariffs on at least 60 US trading partners, claiming that they have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labour.
India will face a new 10-per cent US tariff after Washington reduced the 12.5-per cent duty proposed initially under its forced labour investigation.
The final tariff on India was reduced after New Delhi introduced measures to prohibit imports produced wholly or partly using forced labour.
Nations like China, the UK and Japan that lack laws barring the import of such goods will face 12.5-per cent tariffs.
The US government will impose taxes ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent on imports from these nations.
Countries like China, the United Kingdom and Japan that lack laws barring the import of goods produced with forced labour will face tariffs of 12.5 per cent, the White House said in its order.
Certain economies like Cambodia, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad and Tobago and the European Union have imposed forced labour import prohibitions or undertaken commitments regarding forced labour import prohibitions. Hence goods from these economies should be tariffed at the 10-per cent rate, the White House noted.
Some US imports, like products governed by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and oil and gas, are exempt from the new tariffs.
The latest tariffs take effect today, the moment the temporary 10-per cent import tax earlier enforced by Trump expired. That measure was introduced after a February Supreme Court judgement that invalidated Trump’s so-called ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs introduced in April last year.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)
