Washington, 3 June

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.

For economies that impose a forced labour import prohibition, that have committed to impose and enforce such a prohibition through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or economies that have imposed a partial regime with the effect of preventing the importation of certain forced labour goods, the USTR has proposed an additional duty of 10 per cent.

"For all other economies, the US Trade Representative proposes 12.5 per cent as the rate of additional duty,” the statement said.

The 12.5 per cent tariffs apply to the 54 countries.

The USTR also proposed a textile mechanism that would allow for a certain volume of apparel and textile imports from certain economies to enter the US at a reduced tariff rate.

The USTR has asked interested persons to submit requests to appear at the hearings, along with a summary of testimony, by 22 June and send in written comments by 6 July.

"USTR will hold hearings about the proposed actions in these investigations on 7 July," the statement said.