US Proposes 12.5% Additional Tariff On India, 53 Other Countries Over Forced Labour Import

 

New Delhi : The US Trade Representative has proposed slapping 12.5 per cent 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,” US 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 US to end the investigations, saying such matters should be addressed within the framework of ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.

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.