The U.S. government has proposed a 12.5 per cent tariff on Nigeria and other countries over failure to impose and effectively enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.

In a statement on Tuesday, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that its investigations showed that the acts, policies, and practices of 60 economies related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour were unreasonable and burdened or restricted U.S. commerce.

“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 U.S. Trade Representative proposes 10% as the rate of additional duties. For all other economies, the U.S. Trade Representative proposes 12.5% as the rate of additional duty,” the statement said.

It added, “The U.S. Trade Representative also proposes a textile mechanism that would allow for a certain volume of apparel and textile imports from certain economies to enter the United States at a reduced Section 301 tariff rate.”

The U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador, Jamieson Greer, said, “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.”  

The trade ambassador said America would no longer tolerate the disparity, adding, “Each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labour globally.”  

 The affected countries include Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, China, India, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan and Kazakhstan.

Others are Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

The USTR also stated that six economies had failed to effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour, including Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan.