Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Trump admin announces 10-12.5 'forced labor' tariffs for 60 countries

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Trump admin announces 10-12.5 'forced labor' tariffs for 60 countries · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration is praying that the third time's the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: charm when it comes to the President's tariff agenda. You
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: might remember the US Supreme Court struck down his first
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: round of tariffs in February. That led to the current
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: temporary second round, which is a ten percent import levee
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: that can only last one hundred and fifty days. As
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: we've gotten closer to day one hundred and fifty, the
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  Speaker 1: Trump administration has not not just been standing on the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: sidelines when it comes to the future of their tariff agenda.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Earlier this week, President Trump announced an additional fifty percent
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  Speaker 1: tariffs on what total is close to twenty billion dollars
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  Speaker 1: in Canadian imports items such as wine and hockey sticks
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  Speaker 1: and cement. President claiming the duties will offset Canadian mistreatment
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  Speaker 1: of the US auto, dairy, and alcohol industries. There's a
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  Speaker 1: schedule to go into effect on August nineteenth. President also
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  Speaker 1: posted that starting August first, quote, all generic drugs being
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: brought into the United States will have a tariff of
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  Speaker 1: zero percent for a two year period of time unquote,
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  Speaker 1: and then a one hundred percent tariff in twenty twenty eight,
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  Speaker 1: and an eye popping two hundred percent in twenty twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: So that's a one to two hundred percent tariff on
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  Speaker 1: cheaper drugs that will fall upon people such as you. Separately.
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  Speaker 1: Back in June, US Trade Representative Greer proposed issuing ten
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  Speaker 1: to twelve zero point five percent tariffs on fifty nine
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  Speaker 1: nations and the European Union using a legal authority known
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  Speaker 1: as Section three oh one over the quote failure to
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  Speaker 1: address the importation of goods made with forced labor. So
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about it. US Trade Representative Jameson Greer joins
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  Speaker 1: us now from Mexico City. Thanks so much for joining
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  Speaker 1: us talk us through the details of this new tariff
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  Speaker 1: plan that has to do with forced labor.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Jake, and for the opportunity to
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  Speaker 2: explain what's going on. So, for over one hundred years,
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  Speaker 2: the United States has had a law on the books
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  Speaker 2: prohibiting the import of goods made with four This is
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  Speaker 2: common sense, and we've enforced this law to prohibit it.
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  Speaker 2: What seems like common sense, I think to you and me,
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  Speaker 2: others haven't done in other countries. No one really has
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  Speaker 2: these types of laws, and even in that small handful
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  Speaker 2: of countries that have them, they don't really enforce it,
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  Speaker 2: and so we have gone to the world over frankly,
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  Speaker 2: over years and across administrations to try to get other
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  Speaker 2: countries to act on this. Finally, we have put our
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  Speaker 2: foot down and we have told the countries, you need
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  Speaker 2: to take action. You need to prohibit the import of
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  Speaker 2: goods made with forced labor, and you need to enforce
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  Speaker 2: these laws so that we all have a level playing field.
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  Speaker 2: And so we're taking action to do that. And if
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  Speaker 2: countries are on the right path, they have a certain
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  Speaker 2: level of tariff, about ten percent, and if they're not
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  Speaker 2: on the right path, it's a slightly higher tariff of
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  Speaker 2: twelve and a half percent.
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  Speaker 1: So it sounds great. How does one determine which countries
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  Speaker 1: are using forced labor? Because I assume the pushback from
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  Speaker 1: other countries is this isn't forced labor. We just have
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  Speaker 1: a different labor market and people, you know, work for
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  Speaker 1: lower wages. But no one's force first who decides what
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  Speaker 1: forced labor is?
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  Speaker 2: So really each country, each country does. So we're not
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  Speaker 2: really going into each of these countries and we're not
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  Speaker 2: assessing whether they have forced labor in their borders. What
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  Speaker 2: we're trying to do is we're trying to stop trade
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  Speaker 2: in those types of goods. So in the United States,
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  Speaker 2: we have processes, We have agencies that go through do investigations,
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  Speaker 2: and we identify companies and countries that have a prevalence
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  Speaker 2: of forced labor and we stop those goods at the
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  Speaker 2: border and we don't let them in. Other countries don't
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  Speaker 2: have these processes, so we're telling them, you need to
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  Speaker 2: establish this process, you need to go. You know, even
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  Speaker 2: if you're a country that probably doesn't have forced labor yourself,
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  Speaker 2: if you're allowing the import of goods made with forced labors,
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  Speaker 2: that makes it harder for my goods to compete because
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  Speaker 2: I'm you know, we're following labor rules in the US.
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  Speaker 2: We have labor unions, we have protections for our workers,
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  Speaker 2: and so we're trying to get every country to have
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  Speaker 2: the same kinds of protections we do to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that trade and forced labor isn't occurring so that our workers,
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  Speaker 2: our exporters, our companies don't have to compete against that
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  Speaker 2: on an unlevel playing field.
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  Speaker 1: On a philosophical basis, no doubt, forced labor is an issue.
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  Speaker 1: It's horrific. It's been one for as long as humans
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  Speaker 1: have been alive. Probably, if this is a case that
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  Speaker 1: the President truly cares about this issue, then why not
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  Speaker 1: introduced this plan earlier twenty twenty five?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I would just say, Jake. So in twenty eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: when we readd NAFTA, one of the new provisions we
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  Speaker 2: forced Canada and Mexico to take was their own prohibition
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  Speaker 2: on forced labor. So in USMCA, we obligated them to
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  Speaker 2: do that. A few years later, we're finding that they
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  Speaker 2: aren't actually enforcing that, so they're included in this action.
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  Speaker 2: And then over the past year, as we've done new
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  Speaker 2: trade agreements with parties, we have ten agreements on reciprocal trade,
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  Speaker 2: We've been requiring these countries to commit to implementing these laws.
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  Speaker 2: And even within the past week or two, we've seen
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  Speaker 2: a number of countries come in to implement these laws.
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  Speaker 2: So this is something that's gone on for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: It's not about something that happened a few months ago.
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  Speaker 2: It's a bipartisan concern and American law provides for it.
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  Speaker 2: The President since his first term has put it into
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  Speaker 2: his trade agreements to try to get countries to do this.
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  Speaker 2: So it's unfortunately it's not new We've been trying for
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  Speaker 2: a long time, and finally, you know, we're not in
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  Speaker 2: favor of sweatshops, and we don't want anyone else to
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  Speaker 2: be in favor of it either.
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  Speaker 1: So this is a tariff against countries if they don't
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  Speaker 1: have laws against the import of products made by forced labor.
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  Speaker 1: Is that right?
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right, That's exactly what it is.
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  Speaker 1: So can you name countries that manufacture goods with forced labor?
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  Speaker 1: I mean, I can think of some off the top
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  Speaker 1: of my head, but but I mean, we know of
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  Speaker 1: places where you know, sneakers are made and smartphones are
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  Speaker 1: made and it's suspected to be force labor. So name
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  Speaker 1: some countries, sure.
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  Speaker 2: So for example, just a couple of weeks ago, US
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  Speaker 2: Customs and Border Protection came out with findings of a
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  Speaker 2: company in Jordan where there were forced labor conditions found,
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  Speaker 2: and so Customs of Border Protection put out a statement
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  Speaker 2: that said, we're going to have we're going to withhold
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  Speaker 2: entry of these items. So that's one example. Malaysia is
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  Speaker 2: another one. A couple of years ago there were some
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  Speaker 2: findings that some of the palm oil orchards or groves
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  Speaker 2: in Malaysia had that and so Customs and Border Protection
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  Speaker 2: regularly does these investigations, and those are some US findings.
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  Speaker 2: One thing that's interesting is Jordan and Malaysia are both
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  Speaker 2: countries that agreed as part of their deals with US
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  Speaker 2: over the past year to implement new force labor laws.
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  Speaker 2: So this is really encouraging for us to see progress
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  Speaker 2: after many years.
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  Speaker 1: If we are taking action to shut down or to
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  Speaker 1: try to eliminate as much as possible force labor, why
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  Speaker 1: would we not just as a country say, okay, Jordan
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  Speaker 1: and Malaysia, you now have two hundred percent tariffs until
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  Speaker 1: you pass laws that eliminate force labor in your country,
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  Speaker 1: instead of what this path is, which is putting tariffs
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  Speaker 1: on countries that don't have laws against the importation of
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  Speaker 1: products from places like Malaysia or.
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  Speaker 2: Jordan, because we have an existing law like that, Jake,
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  Speaker 2: and instead of saying, if you don't eliminate forced labor,
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  Speaker 2: we just prohibit it. So if we find that a
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  Speaker 2: company or goods from Jordan are made with forced labor,
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  Speaker 2: we prohibit it. There are goods that come in from
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  Speaker 2: China where there's forced labor, we prohibit those goods. So
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  Speaker 2: we already have that law and that's the part of
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  Speaker 2: the point of this investigation is we're actually doing that
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  Speaker 2: in the United States. We're the leaders on this issue.
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  Speaker 2: But if I'm shipping into a third country, you know,
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  Speaker 2: even a place like Australia where maybe they don't have
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  Speaker 2: a robust law like this, you know, they might accept
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  Speaker 2: goods made with forced labor from you know, China or
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  Speaker 2: Malaysia or wherever, and then our goods export from the
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  Speaker 2: US have to compete with that. That's not fair to
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  Speaker 2: our workers, it's not fair to our unions. And that's
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  Speaker 2: why we've had Democrats and Republicans for many years call
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  Speaker 2: for enforcement action on this very issue.
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  Speaker 1: You don't actually think that the United sis States it
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  Speaker 1: doesn't import products that were made with forced labor. Of
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  Speaker 1: course we do.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Customs and Border Protection has a very robust division
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  Speaker 2: that is focused on this, where they will they will
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  Speaker 2: investigate companies, they stop them. I mean, that is the law.
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  Speaker 2: So we do that. Do things slipped through They probably do,
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  Speaker 2: but we have a very robust investigation. You can look
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  Speaker 2: back and you can look at articles from the past
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  Speaker 2: few years of you know, solar panels being stopped at
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  Speaker 2: the border, car batteries being stopped at the border because
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  Speaker 2: they're suspected of having been produced using forced labor in
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  Speaker 2: China and other places. So this is something where the
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  Speaker 2: United States has actually been really ahead of the curve
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  Speaker 2: again across administrations. Biden enforced this, President Trump enforced it
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  Speaker 2: in his first term, and now it's something that we
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  Speaker 2: regularly do. And you know, I understand your surprise. You
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  Speaker 2: would expect that other countries do this, and they don't,
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  Speaker 2: and we're trying to We're trying to get them to
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  Speaker 2: take the same view, same view with sweatshops that we have.
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  Speaker 2: We don't approve of it.
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  Speaker 1: On on the matter of what the President announced the
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  Speaker 1: other day on social media, can you explain the wisdom
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  Speaker 1: of taxing generic drugs imports at up to two hundred percent?
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  Speaker 1: That's going to hurt a lot of six sick Americans
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  Speaker 1: who are struggling with brand name drug prices and can't
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  Speaker 1: afford brand name drugs and can't afford that that tariff, that.
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  Speaker 2: Tax, and that's why that type of tariff doesn't come
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  Speaker 2: in for several years. The point is a lot of
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  Speaker 2: these generic drugs we're talking about, Jake, that are so important,
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  Speaker 2: and you're exactly right, they're coming from China, they're coming
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  Speaker 2: from India, but we want to make more of those here.
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  Speaker 2: And so what the President has laid out is a
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  Speaker 2: ramp up, a phase in, an opportunity to send a
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  Speaker 2: signal to the manufacturers, to big pharma and big generic pharma,
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  Speaker 2: to say, listen, you need to make here in America
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  Speaker 2: because in a few years you're going to face a tariff.
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  Speaker 2: And it gives them that on ramp because you have
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  Speaker 2: to take time to build the factories. And so it
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  Speaker 2: sends a very strong signal that we need to reshore
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  Speaker 2: here so that we can have security of supply. What
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to have is a situation where Grandma
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  Speaker 2: somehow can't get her generics because you know, there's a
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  Speaker 2: there's a pandemic, or there's some supply shock, and all
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  Speaker 2: of this stuff is coming from Asia. So we have
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  Speaker 2: to reshore here, and the present has laid out a
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  Speaker 2: long term phase in to facilitate it.