US slams Nigerian imports with 12.5 per cent tariff

The United States has slammed Nigerian imports with 12.5 per cent tariff over failure to ban goods produced with forced labour.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative, USTR, made this announcement on Thursday.

According to the USTR, the sanction targets countries that have not imposed and effectively enforced a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.

The USTR disclosed the affected countries as Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and the United Kingdom. While Nigeria faces 12.5 percent, others face 10 per cent lower rate.

The measures are the newest use of US trade law to reshape global commerce by the administration of President Donald Trump

They came six months after the US Supreme Court blocked the White House’s attempt to impose sweeping global tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEEPA.

The US President, after the Supreme Court ruling pivoted to the Trade Act of 1974, invoking Section 122 to impose a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports into the United States for up to 150 days.

The Trump administration subsequently raised the rate to 15 percent, with the temporary measure due to expire on Friday.

According to the US Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, the tariffs followed investigations into 60 economies, two rounds of public hearings, consultations with more than 45 governments and thousands of public submissions.

“President Trump recognises that decades of moral suasion have not eradicated forced labour from global supply chains.

“The United States has had a forced labor import ban for nearly a century… It’s well past time for our trading partners to do the same,” Greer said.