{"id":4280,"date":"2026-07-26T21:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T21:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4280"},"modified":"2026-07-26T21:13:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T21:13:50","slug":"new-tariffs-could-allow-trump-to-make-levies-permanent-without-going-to-congress-hes-trying-every-side-door-and-every-unlatched-window-to-get-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4280","title":{"rendered":"New tariffs could allow Trump to make levies permanent without going to Congress \u2014 \u2018he\u2019s trying every side door and every unlatched window to get in\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The new tariffs announced in recent days take effect just as\u00a0temporary 10% worldwide tariffs expired, and critics say they are less about cracking down on forced labor than they are a way to replace those tariffs. The expired tariffs were themselves a temporary replacement for worldwide tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February.<\/p>\n

Read more Traders are getting a new tool to wager on the biggest U.S. stocks<\/a><\/p>\n

The tariffs were levied on countries that the U.S. says either don\u2019t have or don\u2019t effectively enforce a forced-labor import ban.\u00a0The affected countries, which account for 99% of U.S. imports, were quick to protest, calling the Trump administration\u2019s claims unfounded and arbitrary, as nations with vastly different records on forced labor received the same tariff level. The U.S. spent four months investigating but gave few details on how it arrived at the tariff rates, which are either 10% or 12.5%.<\/p>\n

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Sidestepping Congress<\/h4>\n

The tariffs were levied under\u00a0Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974\u00a0on countries that the U.S. determined had failed \u201cto impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

During\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0\u2018s first term, he cited Section 301\u00a0to impose sweeping tariffs\u00a0on Chinese imports amid a dispute over the sharp-elbowed tactics Beijing was using to challenge America\u2019s technological dominance. The U.S. is also using 301 powers to counter what it calls unfair Chinese practices in the shipbuilding industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 301s allow a permanent tariff without going to Congress to settle the dispute,\u201d said Barry Appleton, a law professor and co-director of New York Law School\u2019s Center for International Law. \u201cThat\u2019s what all of this is about. The president doesn\u2019t want to knock on the front door of Congress, so he\u2019s trying every side door and every unlatched window to get in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little evidence that countries failed to enforce import bans<\/h4>\n

The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said it consulted with all 60 economies under investigation and held two rounds of public hearings, elicited more than 2,100 public comments, and had \u201cengagement\u201d with its trading partners about what they were doing to combat forced labor bans.<\/p>\n

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It didn\u2019t detail its talks with the countries, saying those were confidential. Experts say it is fairly straightforward to investigate whether a country has a ban or not, but it is difficult to determine the government\u2019s exact rationale for each country\u2019s failure to enforce import bans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of hard evidence there,\u201d said Scott Lincicome, vice president for general economics and trade policy at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty laughable on its face to think that a country like the ones in Europe or in Norway or Switzerland aren\u2019t doing enough to police forced labor.\u201d<\/p>\n

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And even if countries do enact and enforce the forced-labor import bans the U.S. wants, they would still need to prove that they\u2019re enforcing them to Washington\u2019s satisfaction before the tariffs would be removed, said lawyer Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis suggests that no short-term path for countrywide relief from the new Section 301 tariffs will be available,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Countries and industries reject the forced labor argument<\/h4>\n

Many countries have pushed back against the Trump administration\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n

Brazil, which faces a 12.5% forced-labor tariff, called the U.S. move \u201carbitrary and unjustified.\u201d The U.S. \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 it said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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Australia also questioned the justification for its 12.5% tariff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that amongst all of the countries in the world, Australia does take the issue of slavery, modern slavery, seriously, and will continue to do that,\u201d Trade Minister Don Farrell told reporters in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

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Carve-outs have riled some industries. The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), which describes itself as the voice of the American textile industry, protested a mechanism that exempts the Section 301 tariffs for textile and apparel imports from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia based on those countries\u2019 imports of U.S. cotton and textiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo other industry has been more disadvantaged by forced labor than the U.S. textile industry, which employs 453,000 workers and has lost 41 plants over the past two plus years,\u201d NCTO chief executive Kim Glas said in a statement. \u201cWe remain strongly concerned that USTR\u2019s textile mechanism will harm the very domestic manufacturers the administration seeks to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

US forced-labor bans don\u2019t always work<\/h4>\n

The U.S. has two major pieces of legislation related to forced-labor import bans. The Tariff Act of 1930 gave Customs and Border Protection the authority to seize shipments where forced labor was suspected and to block further imports. But it had a big carve-out: If there was \u201cconsumptive demand,\u201d meaning there wasn\u2019t sufficient supply to meet domestic demand, imports were allowed regardless of how they were produced. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act that took effect in 2016 eliminated that loophole.<\/p>\n

In 2021,\u00a0the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act\u00a0was passed. It\u00a0blocks imports from China\u2019s Xinjiang region\u00a0unless businesses can prove the items were made without forced labor.<\/p>\n

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But goods made with forced labor can still make it into the U.S.\u00a0In 2015, an Associated Press investigation\u00a0found that slave labor was used in the fishing industry in Southeast Asia. The seafood they caught made its way to supermarkets and pet food providers across the U.S.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0investigation\u00a0by The Associated Press in 2020 into the $65 billion palm oil industry found labor abuses among an invisible workforce consisting of millions of men, women and children in Asia. The fruit they harvested made its way into the supply chains of major companies, including Unilever, L\u2019Oreal, Nestle and Procter & Gamble.<\/p>\n

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Calls for a more comprehensive approach to combat forced labor<\/h4>\n

During hearings on the tariffs this month, National Retail Federation vice president Jonathan Gold, who was representing the business coalition the Joint Association Forced Labor Working Group at the hearing, said that in order for the import bans to work, they would have to be much more extensive.<\/p>\n

He said there need to be \u201cclear, measurable benchmarks\u201d tied to tariffs for countries to hit, and that the U.S. should help countries build enforcement programs.<\/p>\n

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Kenya Davis, a partner at the Boies Schiller Flexner law firm, said an effective ban needs a \u201ccomprehensive approach\u201d that provides transparency about what the investigations consisted of, along with programs that provide countries aid in enforcing bans.<\/p>\n

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