Thursday, July 23rd 2026 - 22:33 UTC
The levies are applied under Section 301 of the 1974 trade law, which allows a response to unfair trade practices following an investigation
The United States imposed tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% on 60 trading partners, which together account for about 99% of its imports, over what the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) described as their failure to adopt and effectively enforce bans on the import of goods produced with forced labor. The measures, announced on Thursday, took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, at the same moment the 10% universal tariff in place since February expired.
The levies are applied under Section 301 of the 1974 trade law, which allows a response to unfair trade practices following an investigation. The move is the biggest effort by Donald Trump's administration to rebuild its tariff framework after the Supreme Court struck down his “reciprocal” tariffs in February, finding that the administration had exceeded its authority by invoking an emergency powers law. The temporary tariff that replaced them, issued under Section 122, was valid for 150 days without congressional approval.
The final breakdown sets a 10% tariff for seventeen economies that adopted restrictions or committed to doing so — among them Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and India — effective rates of 10% to 12.5% depending on the product for another five, and 12.5% for the remaining 38. Several countries changed their legislation after the proposal was made public in June and moved to the lower band; India, for instance, had initially been placed at 12.5%. Oil and gas, fertilizers, and goods qualifying as duty-free under the North American trade agreement are exempt, as are goods in transit.
