Seven Southeast Asian nations are among the 60 countries that the Trump administration has threatened with double-digit tariffs over their failures on the issue of forced labor.
In March, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced that his office had initiated unfair trade practices probes over these nations’ alleged failures to take action on forced labor, under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.
In a statement released in Washington late Tuesday, Greer’s office concluded that the “acts, policies, and practices” of all 60 nations had failed “to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”
The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are among the 44 economies that the Trump administration has threatened with a 12.5 percent tariff for unfair trading practices. The remaining 16 nations, including Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, are in line for a 10 percent tariff.
The list of nations under scrutiny also includes major U.S. partners and allies such as Australia, Canada, the European Union, Britain, Israel, India, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, as well as adversaries like China and Russia.
