Trump tariffs on 60 trade partners to start as global duties expire

The Trump administration will begin new tariffs on 60 trade partners at 12:01 a.m. ET Friday, replacing a temporary global tariff program that expires at the same moment, senior administration officials said. The duties will range from 10% to 12.5% and apply across trade flows that account for 99.4% of U.S. trade, according to a Thursday fact sheet from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The measures target countries and the European Union over alleged failures to curb forced-labor practices in trade with the United States, according to a notice in the Federal Register and the USTR fact sheet. USTR told CNBC it could not estimate how much revenue the tariffs would raise.

A senior Trump administration official described the action to reporters as “the most sweeping international labor rights action the United States has ever taken,” adding that the duties would not stack on top of existing steel and aluminum tariffs imposed under Section 232 national-security authority.

What are Trump’s new tariffs on 60 trade partners?

The new duties are tariffs, meaning taxes charged on imported goods when they enter the United States. Importers pay the tariff to the government, though the economic cost can be absorbed by companies, passed on to customers through prices, or shared across supply chains.

The administration is using Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute that allows the U.S. government to respond to foreign trade practices it determines are unfair or burdensome. In this case, the USTR said the action follows findings that the targeted economies did not effectively ban forced labor in trade with the United States.

The tariffs broadly replace President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% global duties, which were set to lapse at 12:01 a.m. ET Friday. Those global tariffs were imposed under Section 122 of the 1974 trade law after the Supreme Court on Feb. 20 struck down Trump’s earlier global “liberation day” duties, according to CNBC.

Section 122 gave the administration a 150-day window for the temporary worldwide tariff. The new Section 301 action gives the White House a separate legal route for keeping broad import duties in place after that timer runs out.

How the tariff push fits into U.S. trade policy

The announcement extends the administration’s heavy use of tariffs after legal setbacks earlier in the year. Trump has argued that tariffs can raise revenue and strengthen U.S. bargaining power with foreign governments, while critics say they raise costs for U.S. importers and can feed through to consumer prices.

The White House has also recently moved against individual trading partners. A 25% tariff on most U.S. imports from Brazil took effect Wednesday, according to CNBC. Separate 50% tariffs on a wide range of Canadian goods are scheduled to begin next month.

The forced-labor tariffs were proposed in early June after the administration opened two Section 301 investigations in March. One covered forced-labor concerns, while the other focused on excess manufacturing capacity in 16 economies. CNBC reported that the excess-capacity investigation has not been finalized.

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told the Senate on Wednesday, “We commit to continuing to use tariffs and to negotiate deals to support the reindustrialization of our economy, protect American workers, and increase their wages and shrink our trade deficit.”

The immediate effect for global companies is a broader tariff floor on goods entering the U.S. market, with the rate depending on the covered trade partner and product treatment under existing tariff rules. The administration said Section 232 steel and aluminum duties would remain separate rather than being layered with the new forced-labor tariffs.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC Markets.