President Donald Trump announced new tariffs, which are taxes on imported goods, ranging from 10% to 12.5% on products from 60 countries. These countries make up 99% of everything sold to the United States from abroad. The tariffs start at 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 25, 2026 (NPR).

The reason, according to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, is that these countries are not doing enough to stop goods made with forced labor from entering their markets. A report from his office said the targeted countries allow forced labor to continue by failing to screen out at-risk products (NPR).

Some countries can get a lower rate. India, for instance, had its tariff dropped from 12.5% to 10% after it strengthened its forced labor rules. Some details came from a senior administration official who was not named publicly (NPR).

Some products will not face the new tariffs, including oil, gas, fertilizer, and certain goods from Mexico and Canada that already enter the U.S. tax-free under a trade agreement called the USMCA (NPR).

The government started looking into this issue on March 12, 2026, when it launched 60 separate investigations into countries that fail to enforce forced labor bans. Officials reviewed more than 1,600 public comments and held hearings starting July 7, 2026. The decision to act was announced July 6, 2026 (USTR).

Reuters reported on June 3, 2026, that the government had proposed 10% tariffs on imports from Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Argentina, and Bangladesh (Reuters). The government said the tariffs will cover 99.4% of all goods imported to the United States (Reuters).

Not everyone supports the plan. Democratic state attorneys general, who are the top law enforcement officials in their states, opposed the tariffs (Reuters). Latin American countries and some steel companies also asked to be exempted (Reuters). Neither group got a blanket exemption, though the USMCA tax-free carveout and India's lower rate show the administration built in rewards for countries that improve enforcement.

The government has also started a separate investigation into whether 16 countries that account for 70% of U.S. imports have been producing too many goods. That probe is unrelated to the forced labor tariffs (NPR).

The broader context here is that these new tariffs replace an earlier set of temporary taxes on all imports, which were set to expire. Those temporary tariffs had a time limit of 150 days and a cap of 15%. The new tariffs have no expiration date. They can stay in place until the government decides the forced labor problem has been fixed.

The approach builds on an older law from 1930 that blocks goods made with forced labor from entering the country. The new tariffs go further by taxing entire countries for not enforcing their own forced labor bans, instead of just targeting individual shipments or companies.

India's lower rate is a concrete example of how the administration tied the tariff to results. Whether other countries can get similar reductions by improving their own enforcement will depend on whether the trade office is willing to adjust rates on its own.