Since the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s global tariffs in February, his administration has been busily working to reconstruct them, exploring legal options that would allow them to build back the tariff wall between the U.S. economy and the rest of the world.
Late Tuesday night, the Trump administration unveiled part of its Plan B: a tariff of 10 percent to 12.5 percent on 59 countries and the 27-member European Union. The levies were intended to pressure governments that the United States says have not enacted or enforced laws against trading goods made with forced labor.
Those tariffs could go into effect as soon as July, and they are unlikely to be the last ones. The administration is working on another slate of tariffs related to countries’ manufacturing practices that will presumably be added to the forced labor ones.
The tariffs will be rolled out at a sensitive time for the administration, as voters who are dissatisfied with higher prices from the war with Iran and trade policies prepare to head to the polls. But officials appear intent on patching back together Mr. Trump’s vision for replacing the decades-old global trade order, which he argues has been unfair to American business and left the country with fewer factories and growing trade deficits.
