The US has, from July 24, imposed new tariffs of 12.5% on South African products for the country’s “failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour”. South Africa was one of 60 countries on which tariffs of between 10% and 12.5% were imposed following a United States Trade Representative (USTR) investigation under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act of 1974.

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…

The US will put taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports – alleging that the countries impacted have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labour