US President Donald Trump speaks at Wheeler High School, Marietta, Georgia, on July 22, 2026.
Saul Loebe | AFP | Getty Images
America’s trade partners from Canberra to Brasília have rejected the reason for forced labor after President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on the world, while most have signed that they will continue to negotiate rather than retaliate.
The Office of the US Trade Representative on Thursday took action under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, imposing tariffs on 60 economies for what Washington calls their failure to enforce and enforce the ban on imported goods.
Jobs — 10% of partners have adopted or committed to the ban, 12.5% of those who have not — include the US’s top 60 trading partners and 99.4% of American goods.
The measure replaces a temporary 10% global tariff imposed under Section 122 of the trade law, which expires on July 24, a freeze imposed after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s emergency energy tariffs were unconstitutional in February. The forced labor investigation gives the administration a strong legal basis for the basic tax that the courts have challenged.
“These tariffs are unfair, inconsistent with our free trade agreement, and should be removed,” Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said in a statement. “Australia’s measures against forced labor and modern slavery are among the strongest in the world, and we are recognized around the world, including in the US, for our leadership.”
The Brazilian government called the tariffs “unjustified” and “unfair.” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he was still open to negotiations but said Brazil would seek other markets if it could not sell to the US.
The government of Chile said that this measure does not correspond to the standards of the country’s workers and the technical, political and legal evidence that it has sent throughout the investigation, according to a statement from the undersecretariat of trade in Santiago. It noted that the US decision does not mean that Chile is exporting manufactured goods, and said it will press for the removal of important export products.
Canada, ranked in the bottom 10% for USMCA-compliant goods, has struck a much softer tone. The move was “not unexpected,” Canada-US Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement, adding that Ottawa supports Washington’s stance on forced labor and will “continue to engage constructively” in the coming weeks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand said in a market report that the minister of trade made it clear that Wellington does not agree with the findings of the investigation and will continue to register that position with the US government. Existing exemptions covering about 30% of New Zealand’s US-bound exports, including beef and kiwifruit, remain unchanged.
No major partner has announced measures to combat forced labor pricing.
The investigation “is not a staff-level exercise but a way for the United States to impose a ban on Chinese imports, and an effort to renew the tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court,” wrote the Peterson Institute for International Economics earlier this week.
