US Launches New Trade War, Imposes 10% Tariff on Indonesia and 16 Other Nations

The United States government has officially imposed a new set of tariffs on 60 trading partners, marking what is being called a new chapter in the trade war. The policy, announced by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), is based on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 and targets countries deemed to have failed to effectively enforce bans on imports produced with forced labour.

Indonesia is among 17 countries subjected to a flat 10% tariff. The group includes Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom. A second group, including the European Union, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Switzerland, faces tariffs of either 10% or 12.5%, depending on the product. A third, larger group of 38 countries—including China, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia—will be hit with a 12.5% tariff.

USTR Jamieson Greer stated that decades of a persuasive approach had failed to eliminate forced labour from global supply chains. He noted the US has long enforced its own ban on such imports and now expects its trading partners to do the same. The move is intended to pressure other nations to adopt and enforce similar prohibitions, which the US views as a necessary step to improve worker welfare globally.