Trade office raises import taxes to 12.5 per cent citing forced labour concerns
Washington: The US will increase tariffs on Australian products to 12.5 per cent under the guise of human rights after the US Trade Office determined Australia and 59 other countries are not doing enough to eliminate forced labour.
The decision means tariffs on Australian goods will rise from 10 per cent, the rate set under an interim measure after the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” were illegal.
The Australian government made a submission arguing that Australia maintains a robust legal architecture against modern slavery, albeit in a different form to the United States. It was also noted that Australia and the USA have a 20-year free trade agreement.
But in a statement released Thursday (Washington time), the U.S. trade office said it decided to impose the tariffs anyway, based on public comments, testimony and its own committee’s recommendations and “in accordance with the President’s specific direction.”
Dozens of other countries, including Argentina, Canada, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, were hit by new forced labor taxes, but most escaped with the lower 10 percent rate.
US Trade Envoy Jamieson Greer said in a statement that Trump acknowledged that decades of moral exhortations had not eliminated forced labor from global supply chains. But he was encouraged that some countries moved quickly to adopt a U.S.-style ban.
“The United States has banned forced labor for nearly a century and enforced it rigorously, and it is long past time for our trading partners to do the same,” Greer said.
“Today’s action will begin to correct both human rights abuse and distorted business practice to improve the well-being of workers everywhere.”
The order included an addendum containing a number of product exemptions.
More to come
Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
