Trump readies new tariffs on 60 countries before deadline
The US Trade Representative is hearing testimony on tariffs tied to forced labor as the White House rushes to lock in permanent duties before a temporary tariff expires on July 24.
- The US Trade Representative is holding a three-day hearing, from July 7 to July 9, on new tariffs tied to forced labor.
- Proposed permanent duties of 10 to 12.5 percent would hit imports from 60 trading partners.
- A temporary global tariff of 10 percent expires on July 24, pushing the administration to replace it with permanent measures.
- Senator Ron Wyden argued the tariffs are ill-designed to combat forced labor.
For Serbian exporters who reach the American market through supply chains rooted in the European Union, Washington’s move is not distant news: every new tariff barrier on 60 countries changes the cost of entering the world’s largest market and reshapes the rules that Belgrade, as an EU candidate, must follow as it aligns its own trade policy. This week the Office of the US Trade Representative opened a three-day hearing on duties that would strike imports from as many as sixty trading partners, arguing that those countries fail to adequately enforce bans on forced labor.
The hearing, running from July 7 to July 9 in Washington, has drawn dozens of participants, from government officials to industry groups, testifying for and against the proposed measures. The Trade Representative proposes duties ranging from 10 to 12.5 percent on imported goods, relying on Section 301 of the Trade Act, the same legal instrument Washington used earlier in its trade dispute with Beijing.
Why is the administration rushing before July 24?
The answer lies in the calendar. A temporary global tariff of 10 percent, imposed earlier this year, expires on July 24, and the White House aims not to lose it but to turn it into a permanent mechanism. The forced-labor investigations serve as the legal framework through which the administration would restore tariff levels set by earlier emergency decrees, this time on grounds that are harder to challenge in court than an appeal to a state of emergency.
The proposed model is not a classic punitive tariff aimed at a single country but a sweeping move that covers sixty partners at once. That changes the very logic of American trade policy: instead of targeted, case-by-case negotiations, Washington is introducing a horizontal measure that presses on an entire circle of trade relationships. For the multilateral trading order that the Serbian economy also depends on, this is a tectonic shift whose consequences are only beginning to surface in supply chains.
Who opposes the tariffs
Resistance does not come only from the affected countries. Senator Ron Wyden, one of the most influential voices in Congress on trade, argued that the proposed tariffs are ill-designed to combat forced labor and miss the real target. His objection raises the question of whether protecting workers’ rights is the sincere motive or merely a legal cover for rebuilding the tariff wall that was at the core of Trump’s economic agenda.
Industry groups warn that the duties would raise prices for American importers and consumers, while advocates argue that weak enforcement of forced-labor bans unfairly burdens American commerce. The Trade Representative must now weigh that testimony and propose a final shape for the measures before the temporary tariff expires, in a race against a deadline that leaves little room for careful deliberation.
Will Washington succeed in turning a tariff wall of 10 to 12.5 percent into a permanent rule, and how will Serbian exporters who operate through European supply chains feel the effect?
