WASHINGTON, July 24 — United States (US) President Donald Trump's administration announced its final decision on Thursday to impose up to 12.5 per cent tariffs on South Korea, Japan, and other trading partners over forced labour concerns.
Yonhap News Agency reported that the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) unveiled the new tariffs ranging from 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent on dozens of countries after conducting investigations into 60 economies under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act to determine whether they had taken sufficient steps to ban imports made with forced labour.
The announcement came as the administration's temporary 10-per cent global tariffs were set to expire on Friday.
The across-the-board duties were rolled out after the Supreme Court struck down the Trump administration's country-specific "reciprocal tariffs" in February.
Last month, the USTR proposed a 12.5 per cent tariff on South Korea and other economies over forced labour concerns.
In comments submitted to the USTR, the South Korean government had urged the US to reconsider the proposed forced labour tariff, calling the proposal "unwarranted" and "disproportionate" given the relevant circumstances of Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Separate from the investigations on forced labour concerns, the USTR Office has also conducted Section 301 investigations into South Korea, China, Japan and 13 other trading partners to uncover "unfair" trade practices related to "structural" excess capacity and production.
The investigations came as the Trump administration sought to replace the invalidated reciprocal tariffs that it had imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
