Singapore could face a proposed 12.5 per cent tariff on exports to the United States after a U.S. trade agency said it had not adopted and effectively enforced a ban on goods produced with forced labour.
The proposal is not yet in force and will go through comments and hearings beginning in July, with written submissions due by July 6. The Office of the United States Trade Representative said Singapore was among the economies that had failed both to impose and effectively enforce a forced-labour import prohibition.
Singapore has rejected the claim, saying in April that it was not aware of any goods produced with forced labour exported from Singapore to the U.S.. The USTR’s move is part of a broader Section 301 trade probe covering 60 economies.
For all other economies, including Singapore, it has proposed a 12.5 per cent additional tariff.
In a report issued with the press release on June 2 (Washington time), the USTR said: “For the foregoing reasons, the results of this investigation indicate that the acts, policies and practices of Singapore related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a forced labour import prohibition are unreasonable and burden or restrict US commerce.”
The agency said that persons interested in appearing at the hearings – starting on July 7 – should submit requests to appear, along with a summary of testimony to be submitted, by June 22.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who heads the USTR, said: “The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labour is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field.”
He said the US will no longer tolerate this disparity.