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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Eduardo Porter

If Trump really cares about forced labor, he should look at the US – rather than slap more tariffs on the world

Shipping containers in a port.
Shipping containers at the port of Tacoma in Washington state on 4 March 2025. Trump said his latest round of tariffs was imposed to fight forced labor. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Don’t believe the Trump administration’s rationale for its new volley of tariffs against everybody.

The new levies, ostensibly to punish countries for failing to do enough to curb forced labor, switched on at 12.01am on Friday, to coincide with the expiration of a temporary 10% blanket duty that Donald Trump imposed in February, ostensibly to protect the United States from a balance-of-payments crisis.

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