The United States (US) is issuing another round of tariffs to its trading partners, with Singapore facing 12.5% over its failure to ban imports made through forced labour.
In a press release on 23 July, the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) said the act comes following investigations that included “two rounds of public hearings, more than 2,100 public comments, and engagement with our trading partners”.
“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” said Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
“Today’s action will begin to correct what is both a human rights abuse and distortive trade practice to improve the welfare of workers everywhere.”
The findings stated that many of the economies the US trades with, including Singapore, have failed to “enforce a forced labour import prohibition”.
These new tariffs, which are stated to be because of trading partners importing products made through forced labour, come just as the temporary global 10% tariffs expire.
Source: ABC News
In February, the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, which he announced near the start of his presidency, were illegal.
In response to that ruling, he instead imposed a temporary 150-day 10% tariff that expired on 12.01am EDT (12.01pm) on Friday (24 July). The new tariffs announced on Thursday will take effect as soon as the old tariffs end.
Findings in the pre-publication version of the Federal Register Notice indicate that Singapore will be hit with a 12.5% tariff on many of its exports to the US.
According to the Business Times, Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said he raised the matter with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a meeting at the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila.
He acknowledged that the US needed to raise tariff revenue because of their “domestic political reasons”. However, he also stressed that Singapore should not be the target.
“I made the point quite categorically that the US has a trade surplus against us, and in fact it is growing, and on that basis, there really is no technical or economic basis to impose tariffs upon us,” said the Foreign Minister.
According to the Straits Times, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said that around a third of Singapore’s exports to the US will be hit by the tariffs in June.
However, that will now have to be recalculated based on the new exemption list published on Friday.
Also read: S’pore hit with 10% tariffs after Trump announcements, ASEAN among most affected
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