EU slams Trump’s forced labor tariff as ‘unjustified’

Key Points:

• The European Commission condemned the U.S. plan to impose a 10 percent tariff on EU goods, arguing that such tariffs are unjustified despite the U.S. claim that the EU has failed to ban imports made with forced labor.
• The U.S. Trade Representative's Office intends to reimpose tariffs on major trading partners, including the EU, Canada, and Mexico, citing insufficient enforcement of forced labor import prohibitions, with the EU's regulation only taking effect in December 2027.
• EU officials, including European Parliament trade committee chair Bernd Lange, criticized the U.S. move as an attempt to find legal grounds for tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down previous global tariffs.
• The tariffs threaten to undermine the transatlantic trade truce established in the 2023 Turnberry accord, which included tariff ceilings and mutual import scrapping agreements, with a key EU parliamentary vote on the accord scheduled for June 16.
• The announcement precedes a high-level meeting between EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, highlighting ongoing tensions in EU-U.S. trade relations.