Trump hitting countries, including Canada, with forced labour tariffs

The Trump administration said Thursday it is hitting dozens of countries, including Canada, with tariffs citing forced labour in supply chains.

The United States Trade Representative’s office announced the new duties on more than 60 nations just hours before President Donald Trump’s previous tariff tool was set to expire.

Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom are among the countries getting hit with a 10 per cent tariff, while other nations are seeing a 12.5 per cent levy.

Some products — including oil and gas and fertilizer — are exempted from the new tariffs announced Thursday. Also being spared are products that qualify for duty-free status under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the North American trade pact Trump negotiated in his first term.

A federal register’s notice includes hundreds of pages of individual exemptions.

“President Trump recognizes that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labour from global supply chains,” United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a news release.

“The United States has had a forced labour import ban for nearly a century, and rigorously enforces it; it’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same.”

The Trump administration launched trade investigations earlier this year through Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the tariff tool used for the “Liberation Day” and fentanyl-related duties.

To temporarily replace his tariffs, Trump used Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 for a 10 per cent global duty. But that statute was set to expire Friday unless Congress voted to extend it.

Experts have said the 301 investigations into forced labour are a more permanent way to rebuild Trump’s tariff wall around the United States.

The U.S. trade office’s report Thursday said “that Canada has failed to effectively enforce its forced labour import prohibition.”

The Canadian government previously told the Trump administration that new legislation combating forced labour in supply chains should shield Canada from new tariffs.

Canada already had legislation intended to curb forced labour in supply chains, which requires annual reports to the federal government. But the federal government tabled a bill last month to boost enforcement.

Bill C-35 would create a public list of products that have been linked to forced labour in specific regions, based on intelligence from embassies and other authorities. It would require importers to prove that specific products from listed regions were not made through slavery.

In a written submission to Greer’s office earlier this month, the federal government said that “in light of Canada’s existing prohibition, complementary supply chain transparency measures, newly introduced stand-alone forced labour import legislation and continued commitment to Canada-U.S. co-operation, Canada respectfully submits that there is no basis for the imposition of additional Section 301 duties on Canadian goods.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2026.

– With files from The Associated Press

By Kelly Geraldine Malone | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.