The Trump administration has taken a novel approach as it looks for ways to issue new tariffs to replace the levies invalidated by the Supreme Court. It began a new trade investigation in March that targets 59 countries and the European Union with potential tariffs unless they pass laws that ban imports of goods made with forced labor.
In two days of hearings about the investigation in Washington this week, human rights officials and company executives generally praised the move, saying it was likely to bring about a major expansion of global legislation to combat forced labor. But they also expressed a variety of cautionary messages, saying the administration must ensure that other countries actually enforce any new laws and that the efforts don’t backfire.
Some who testified argued that the additional tariffs the Trump administration has proposed could tax the resources that foreign governments need to police labor violations, or hurt vulnerable foreign workers rather than help them by cutting off trade with the United States.
Others argued that forced labor occurs in fields, factories and fishing vessels, and that import bans could risk missing where labor violations were actually occurring.
Trade experts have applauded the administration’s focus on forced labor, but also questioned its motivation. The investigation targets all of the country’s major trading partners — including Canada and the European Union, which have the most forward-leaning laws on forced labor outside the United States. And it excludes some smaller countries where the U.S. government has identified slavery, human trafficking or forced labor, like Afghanistan, Belarus, Myanmar and Mauritania.
Some are questioning whether the administration’s measure is more of a pretext to impose tariffs that U.S. officials want to have in effect anyway, and whether foreign countries will be able to take actions to have the tariffs rolled back.
