The United States adds a 12.5% tariff on Chinese goods over forced labour

On 23 July 2026, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published the final action from its Section 301 investigations into the practices of 60 trading partners regarding the import of goods produced with forced labour. The additional duties took effect at midnight Eastern Time on 24 July 2026, for goods entered for consumption from that date.

Two rates apply depending on each economy's classification: 10% for those judged to have made credible commitments to ban such imports, and 12.5% for those judged not to have adopted such a ban. China is among the economies subject to the higher rate, which is added to the Section 301 duties already in force on most Chinese tariff lines, which can reach 100% on certain categories arising from the 2024 four-year review.

Several trading partners closely tied to Chinese supply chains were placed in the same 12.5% group, including Colombia and the Dominican Republic, both of which had to legislate in the following days in an attempt to secure a review of their own rate.

For an importer buying in China, this duty is added to the existing stack of US duties, without replacing them: Section 301 list duties, any anti-dumping or countervailing duties, and now this forced-labour-related duty. Documentation tracing raw materials and labour becomes a direct tariff issue, not merely a matter of compliance or reputation.