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WASHINGTON — <\/span>President Donald Trump is going ahead with new double-digit tariffs on dozens of U.S. trading partners just as the clock runs out Friday on stopgap levies he imposed after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n The United States will slap taxes of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners accounting for 99% of U.S. imports, charging that they have inadequately enforced bans on goods produced by forced labor.<\/p>\n \u201cThe United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it\u2019s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,\u201d said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. <\/p>\n The new tariffs will take effect just as temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expire at 12:01 a.m. Friday<\/a>. Trump had turned to those temporary levies after the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now he’s tapping more durable tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974<\/a>, which permits the president to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in \u201cunjustifiable,\u201d \u201cunreasonable\u201d or \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d trade practices. Trump used Section 301 to impose big tariffs on China in his first term, and they survived court challenges.<\/p>\n More Section 301 tariffs are likely coming: The U.S. Trade Representative\u2019s office has launched a probe into whether 16 countries \u2014 accounting for 70% of U.S. imports \u2014 have overproduced goods, pushing down prices and putting U.S. companies at a disadvantage<\/a> in global markets. The administration has yet to complete that investigation. <\/p>\n Trump, who argues that high tariffs will revive American manufacturing, last year overturned decades of U.S. policy that favored lower tariffs and ever-freer trade. Invoking the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, he imposed double-digit tariffs on imports from almost every country on Earth, saying America\u2019s longstanding trade deficit amounted to a national emergency.<\/p>\n But the Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA did not authorize tariffs. The decision forced the administration to pay refunds to importers that had paid the tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n In response, Trump announced 10% worldwide tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. But he can only use Section 122 levies for 150 days; time runs out on them Friday.<\/p>\n The administration initially proposed the forced labor tariffs last month. Since then, some countries have tightened forced labor enforcement and qualified for lower tariffs, said a senior administration official who spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. For example, the official said, the tariff on imports from India initially was set at 12.5% but now will be 10%. <\/p>\n Some products \u2014 including oil and gas and fertilizer \u2014 are exempted from the new tariffs announced Thursday. Also being spared are products that qualify for duty-free status under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the North American trade pact Trump negotiated in his first term.<\/p>\n The tariffs drew immediate fire from critics.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s forced labor justification is too convenient to be taken seriously,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee. \u201cForced labor is a real and pervasive problem in our supply chains and demands serious enforcement. It should never be cheapened into a pretext for a tariff policy built on dubious legal theories and personal grievances.”<\/p>\n Brazil, which faces a 12.5% forced-labor tariff, called the U.S. move \u201carbitrary and unjustified\u201d in a statement. It plans to trigger its reciprocity law \u2014 which could call for retaliatory tariffs on the United States \u2014 and take a complaint to the World Trade Organization. The United States, the Brazilian government said, \u201cchose to manipulate an issue of great importance to human rights and the struggles of workers worldwide in order to accuse 59 countries and the European Union of unfair practices.\u201d <\/p>\n Chile’s Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Paula Est\u00e9vez said that the country has \u201csolid labor institutions, a robust regulatory framework and a firm commitment to the prevention and eradication of forced labor.\u201d Chile faces a 12.5% rate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Government of Chile considers that the application of this measure to our country is inconsistent with these standards, as well as with the technical, political, and legal background presented throughout the investigation process,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Tariffs are paid by companies in the United States that import foreign products. The importers usually try to pass along the cost by charging consumers higher prices. Americans are already frustrated by the high cost of living. So the administration is taking a risk in rolling out new tariffs ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.<\/p>\n Human rights watchers say that it\u2019s reasonable to be skeptical of the motivation behind the tariffs. But they say the levies could make an impact on the problem of forced labor.<\/p>\n The tariffs are being imposed on countries that the U.S. found either failed to impose or failed to effectively enforce a ban on importing goods made with forced labor. <\/p>\n Forced labor is defined by the International Labor Organization Forced Labor Convention of 1930 as \u201call work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself (or herself) voluntarily.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the latest statistics from the ILO, which is a U.N. agency focused on human and labor rights, about 27.6 million people were in forced labor worldwide on any given day in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone on record for years now advocating for import bans, not as a magic bullet, it\u2019s not a silver bullet, but as a potentially effective tool in combating forced labor across the globe,\u201d said Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of The Human Trafficking Legal Center.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s possible to be extremely critical of tariffs, as we are, and to be very concerned about blanket tariffs used as bludgeons against countries,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd yet I think it\u2019s undeniable that there is a significant response in terms of the adoption of import bans.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Vandenberg and her organization urged in testimony that the tariffs be implemented in a phased approach to give countries time to implement a ban or a plan for enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cOur concern is that the import bans will be thin slips of paper with no enforcement,\u201d she said. \u201cCountries need time to build import ban mechanisms that are meaningful and enforceable.\u201d<\/p>\n