USTR proposes 12.5% additional duties on India, 53 other countries over forced labour import violations

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Published - June 03, 2026 09:45 am IST - Washington Image used for representational purposes only. | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto The U.S. Trade Representative has proposed slapping 12.5% additional duties on 54 countries, including India, for failing to prohibit the import of goods produced with forced labour. The action follows investigations launched against 60 countries over what the USTR described as their failure to impose and effectively enforce bans on imports made with forced labour. "The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in a statement. "We will no longer tolerate this disparity," he said. India has denied the allegations under the forced labour clause and asked the U.S. to end the investigations, saying such matters should be addressed within the framework of ongoing bilateral trade negotiations. Mr. Greer said, though some trading partners have taken initial steps to prevent the importation of forced labour goods, including through USMCA and commitments in Agreements on Reciprocal Trade, "each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labour globally". The USTR statement said 54 countries, including India, China, Japan, Brazil, Australia, the UK, and Saudi Arabia, have failed to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour. It said six economies — Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan — have failed to effectively enforce existing prohibitions on the importation of goods produced with forced labour. For economies that impose a forced labour import prohibition, that have committed to impose and enforce such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or economies that have imposed a partial regime with the effect of preventing the importation of certain forced labour goods, the USTR has proposed an additional duty of 10%. "For all other economies, the U.S. Trade Representative proposes 12.5% as the rate of additional duty,” the statement said. The 12.5% tariffs apply to the 54 countries. The USTR also proposed a textile mechanism that would allow for a certain volume of apparel and textile imports from certain economies to enter the U.S. at a reduced tariff rate. The USTR has asked interested persons to submit requests to appear at the hearings, along with a summary of testimony by June 22 and send in written comments by July 6. "USTR will hold hearings about the proposed actions in these investigations on July 7," the statement said. Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

USTR proposes 12.5% additional duties on India, 53 other countries over forced labour import violations

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USTR proposes 12.5% additional duties on India, 53 other countries over forced labour import violations

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