Greer Says EU Tariff Deal Can Stand as US Pursues Forced-Labor Duties

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the United States can comply with its trade agreement with the European Union while pursuing proposed tariffs tied to forced-labor import enforcement.

In a June 3 France 24 interview, Greer was asked whether the proposed tariffs would imperil the U.S.–EU trade deal reached last year, because they would come on top of tariffs agreed under that deal.

“We see a lot of room for continued compliance with the trade agreement even with what we just proposed last night,” Greer said. He said he had spoken with European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic before the tariff proposal was released, and “both sides are committed to compliance with the trade agreement.”

Asked whether the 15 percent tariff rate would remain, Greer said: “We understand that this is the deal, and a deal is a deal, and if the European Union will comply with their part, we expect to comply with ours while also trying to get at all of these trade practices.”

The comments came after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) proposed additional duties on imports from 60 economies after determining that they had failed to impose or effectively enforce bans on goods made with forced labor. The proposed duties would be 10 percent for some economies and 12.5 percent for others, depending on whether they already have a forced-labor import prohibition, a reciprocal-trade commitment, or a partial regime addressing such goods.

The USTR said the proposal is not final. Written comments are due July 6, requests to appear at public hearings are due June 22, and hearings are scheduled for July 7 at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, according to the Federal Register notice.

Forced-Labor Tariff Proposal

The USTR said it initiated 60 Section 301 investigations on March 12 into whether various economies had failed to impose and effectively enforce prohibitions on imports made wholly or partly with forced labor.

In the Federal Register notice, the USTR said its office determined that 54 economies had failed to impose and effectively enforce a forced-labor import prohibition, while six—Canada, Ecuador, the European Union, Indonesia, Mexico, and Pakistan—had failed to effectively enforce such a prohibition.

The 54 economies listed by the USTR include China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, and others.

USTR proposed a 10 percent additional duty for products from economies that have a forced-labor import prohibition, have taken commitments through an Agreement on Reciprocal Trade, or have imposed a partial regime preventing certain forced-labor goods from entering their markets. The office proposed a 12.5 percent duty for other economies.

The Federal Register notice also proposed a textile mechanism allowing a certain volume of apparel and textile imports from some trading partners to enter the United States at a reduced Section 301 tariff rate.

Greer Says Prior Tariffs Are ‘Not in Play’

In the France 24 interview, Greer said the tariffs in the EU deal reached last year were based on a previous legal authority that the Supreme Court had struck down.

“Those tariffs are not in play anymore,” Greer said.

He said the United States still sees room to comply with the EU trade agreement while addressing what the USTR described as unfair trading practices tied to forced-labor goods.

Greer also said the European Union and its parliament were moving forward with legislation, but he said other issues agreed to at Turnberry still needed to be dealt with.

“The parliament put an end date on the concessions, which reduces the value of the agreement for the United States,” Greer said. He also cited non-tariff barriers related to the EU deforestation regulation and carbon border adjustment mechanism, saying flexibilities that had been promised had not yet been realized.

Later in the interview, Greer said the European Union was “in the process of complying” with the deal and that the United States had been in compliance since September.

“If we want a deal, we have to comply with the deal,” he said. “We know that a deal is a deal.”

USTR Says Failures Burden US Commerce

USTR said the investigated economies’ failure to impose and effectively enforce forced-labor import prohibitions was unreasonable and burdened or restricted U.S. commerce.

The office said those failures distorted competition by allowing firms using forced labor to produce goods at lower cost, undermining companies that do not use forced labor, and contributing to circumvention of existing forced-labor import prohibitions.

“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable,” Greer said in the USTR’s June 2 statement. “This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”

The USTR said it received testimony from nearly 60 witnesses and 500 comments and rebuttal comments during the investigation process. The Federal Register notice says the USTR held public hearings on April 28 and April 29.

The notice said the USTR requested consultations with governments subject to the investigations and held consultations with 46 economies, including the EU, Japan, Taiwan, India, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. The notice said the remaining governments did not accept the request or were otherwise unable to participate.

EU Forced-Labor Rule

The European Commission says the EU’s Forced Labour Regulation will ban products made with forced labor from the EU market, whether imported or made inside the bloc. The Commission says the rules will start to apply on Dec. 14, 2027.

The USTR said in its Federal Register notice that some comments argued against a finding of “unreasonableness” where an economy already had domestic forced-labor laws, where international standards did not impose an affirmative obligation to adopt an import ban, or where an economy had commitments to the United States.

The USTR said commitments alone were not enough. The notice said the USTR “applauds” economies that have undertaken forced-labor import commitments, including Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Taiwan, but said such commitments did not eliminate the need for effective action.

Next Steps

The proposed duties remain subject to public comment and hearings.

The Federal Register notice says written comments and post-hearing rebuttal comments should be submitted through docket USTR–2026–0265. Requests to appear at the hearings should be submitted through docket USTR–2026–0266.

The Section 301 Committee is scheduled to convene public hearings on July 7 at 10 a.m. at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, with post-hearing rebuttal comments due five days after the final hearing day.