The Trump administration on Tuesday proposed imposing additional duties of 10 per cent or 12.5 per cent on imports from 60 countries, including India, for failing to “impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

Following an investigation, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said that the non-compliance is “unreasonable” and is actionable under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act, which allows the imposition of tariffs or trade restrictions. The USTR has proposed duties on all products of the investigated economies, “except as provided in Annex A to the Federal Register notice.”

The federal agency suggested imposing 10 per cent tariffs on imports from six countries for their failure to effectively enforce “a prohibition on the importation of goods” produced using forced labour. These are:

The other 54 countries could be slapped with 12.5 per cent duties over their failure to impose and effectively enforce prohibitions. The countries are as follows:

After the US Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) in February, his administration said it would pursue alternative legal routes to impose duties.

Section 301 allows the USTR to investigate and take action against unfair trade practices. The federal agency must complete an investigation within 12 months.

In May, the Republican administration faced another setback after the US Court of International Trade scrapped the 10 per cent tariffs imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 that Trump introduced following the verdict on IEEPA duties.

On Tuesday’s notification, the USTR labelled the alleged labour practices of the countries as “unreasonable.” Unlike the Section 122 duties, Section 301 offers the US government the ability to adjust tariffs, country-by-country.

In its reasoning, the Trade Representative argued that the countries’ failure to curb forced labour practices is “unreasonable” because it undermines the universal aim of eliminating forced labour and subjects US producers to unfair competition in export and the domestic markets.

The federal agency said that firms that indulge in forced labour produce goods at lower cost, thereby distorting market conditions and undermining the profitability of firms for other firms. The USTR also said that it “contributes to the circumvention of existing forced labor import prohibitions.”