Wyden Urges USTR to End Attempt to Revive Trump’s Price-Hiking Global Tariffs

Wyden Urges USTR to End Attempt to Revive Trump's Price-Hiking Global Tariffs

Wyden calls on Trump Administration to take real steps to combat forced labor in supply chains, step up enforcement against products made with illegal labor practices and restore funding to identify and stop forced labor where it happens

Washington, D.C. - Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., pressed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to abandon his efforts to reconstruct Trump's price-hiking global tariffs on 60 of the United States' top trading partners, in a letter sent today.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) is hearing testimony this week on its proposal to impose new tariffs under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. While the administration claims the proposed tariffs are an effort to address forced labor in supply chains, statements by administration officials indicate the investigation is actually an effort to reconstruct Trump's global tariff regime after it was struck down by the Supreme Court in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. Indeed, USTR has proposed that some of the nations with the worst records on forced labor receive the same tariff rate under this action as countries that have long been cooperative partners for the United States.

"Forced labor is a serious problem, and it demands a serious solution," Wyden wrote in his letter to Ambassador Greer. "Instead of using forced labor as a pretext for pursuing broad tariffs that raise costs for Americans, I urge this Administration to give the scourge of forced labor the attention it deserves by focusing on enforcing the laws on the books and ensuring that the United States is investing adequate resources towards combatting forced labor where it happens."

Overall, the Trump administration's enforcement record on forced labor has been deeply disappointing. Despite Congress's actions-including a 2016 law closing the "consumptive demand" loophole and the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA)-enforcement has lagged during the Trump administration. Notably, since January 15, 2025, the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force has not taken action to ban any entities found to be using forced labor from U.S. supply chains.

Additionally, the administration slashed more than $500 million in global labor programs funded through the Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), weakening efforts to end forced labor and protect American workers from unfair competition. It also withheld congressionally appropriated funding for the International Labor Organization (ILO), preventing the appointment of a U.S. Deputy Director-General and ceding U.S. influence to China over the development of global labor standards.

"I strongly encourage USTR to develop a genuine strategy to combat forced labor in global supply chains and help our trading partners to build the legal, institutional, and technical capacity to adopt and effectively enforce import prohibitions on goods produced with forced labor," Wyden concluded.

The full letter is here.

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