Catenaa, Friday, July 24, 2026- The US extended a 10% tariff baseline hitting most major trading partners, prompting pushback from countries around the world.
In a 431-page filing in the Federal Register, the US Trade Representative’s office laid out how it will collect duties of 10% to 12.5% on imports from almost 60 countries and the European Union, effective Friday and replacing 10% levies that lapsed at the same time.
The rationale was that the targeted economies failed to prevent forced labor in their supply chains.
Some governments complained, though none signaled retaliation was imminent, and global equity markets largely shrugged off the change as a continuation of the status quo.
Trade lawyers and former officials questioned this use of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, calling it an overly broad application susceptible to fresh court challenges.
Plenty of uncertainty remains. One unknown is the duties’ effects on already-persistent inflation tied to the Iran war.
Another is the prospect of more tariffs on China and others over excess industrial capacity under a separate 301 case, at a time when Trump wants to host Xi Jinping for a summit in September.
Bloomberg Economics calculated that the average effective US tariff rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 10.7% from Thursday.
Goods from some 10 trading partners deemed to have adopted forced-labor restrictions will be subject to 10% tariffs, including Mexico, the UK, Canada and India.
Duties on items from the European Union and Taiwan won’t exceed 10% and products from Japan, Switzerland and South Korea will be broadly capped at 12.5%, in a way that complies with the trade agreements they reached with the US, according to a Federal Register notice published Thursday.
Products from dozens of others will face a 12.5% charge, with certain other duties stacking on top. The formula also allows for some exemptions, such as for products that can’t be produced in the US or where tariffs would cause economy-wide disruptions.
Asian nations described the Trump administration’s latest tariffs as baseless and unjustified, while stopping short of any retaliatory moves.
Australia called the action “unjustified” and inconsistent with its free trade agreement, according to a statement from Trade Minister Don Farrell, who said the US should remove the new duty.
Singapore pushed back against the new tax, with Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan saying there was no economic justification for the action. Japan also signaled its displeasure and is seeking reassurances that the levies are in keeping with the deal it struck with the US last year.
The forced-labor duties are Trump’s broadest move toward restoring his protectionist tariff regime since his earlier levies were struck down by the Supreme Court.
After that setback he instituted a 10% global import tax, which expired Friday. The timing of the new charges ensures there will be no gap between the two.
“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it,” USTR Jamieson Greer said in a statement. “It’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same.”
Greer is spearheading Trump’s redesigned trade policy, targeting unfair practices abroad using more legally tested statutes that require months of procedures and public engagement.
The more lawyerly approach stands in contrast to the immediacy and unpredictability of Trump’s tariff barrages through much of 2025.
