U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer accused Democratic-led states challenging President Donald Trump’s new tariffs of putting foreign sweatshops ahead of American workers and siding with China against U.S. efforts to eradicate forced labor from global supply chains.
“It’s official: Twenty-five Democrat-run states, spanning from Michigan to California, have made their priorities clear: foreign sweatshops come before protecting hardworking Americans,” Greer said in a statement obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.
The statement is the Trump administration’s most forceful response yet to lawsuits filed by 25 states seeking to overturn tariffs of 10 percent to 12.5 percent imposed last month on goods from more than 80 countries.
The states, led by New York, California and Illinois, filed their complaint Monday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. They argue the administration used forced labor as a pretext for rebuilding the global tariff system invalidated by the Supreme Court in February.
“After losing at the Supreme Court, the administration is once again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said when the lawsuit was filed.
Greer rejected that characterization, saying the states are asking courts to give countries that tolerate forced labor in their supply chains a free pass.
“While the Trump Administration is imposing costs on countries that refuse to ban or effectively block goods made in modern slavery conditions from entering their markets, these Democrats want to give them a pass,” Greer said. “Unsurprisingly, these Democrat leaders are taking the same position as the Chinese government.”
The tariffs were imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 after an investigation by Greer’s office into whether trading partners’ failures to block products made with forced labor burden U.S. commerce and harm American workers.
Countries with laws prohibiting forced-labor imports were assigned a tariff of 10 percent. Those without such laws were hit with a 12.5 percent tariff. Certain food, agricultural, fertilizer and energy imports are exempt, as are products already subject to tariffs imposed on national-security grounds, including steel, aluminum and automobiles.
The states contend that USTR failed to conduct the country-specific analysis required by law and did not adequately explain how the tariffs would address forced labor. Their complaint says the duties operate as an extension of Trump’s broader tariff policy instead of the kind of tailored trade remedy authorized by Section 301.
Greer’s statement points to changes in foreign law since USTR opened the investigation as evidence that the policy is already working. According to Greer, 10 countries have committed in bilateral agreements with the U.S. to establish bans on forced-labor imports, while nine countries have adopted such prohibitions since the investigation began.
India, which initially faced a tariff of 12.5 percent, was moved to the 10 percent tier after enacting a law addressing forced-labor imports.
“The United States is the only country that effectively prohibits forced labor imports—other countries do not,” Greer said. He added that the administration had recently taken action against companies in Jordan, Serbia and China over the use of forced labor in their supply chains.
The administration’s latest tariffs replaced a temporary 10 percent global duty Trump imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act after the Supreme Court struck down most of his second-term tariffs. Those earlier duties had been imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The new legal challenges are expected to face a steeper climb. Unlike the emergency-powers statute, Section 301 expressly permits the imposition of tariffs following an investigation and a notice-and-comment process. Courts have historically given presidents broad discretion in selecting remedies under the law. The litigation is likely to turn on how much deference the trade court gives USTR’s findings and whether the agency sufficiently connected each country’s practices to harm suffered by U.S. commerce.
Greer also pointed to support for the administration’s forced-labor investigations from organized labor, including the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, International Association of Machinists and United Auto Workers.
“Before President Trump, Democrats agreed that the United States must do whatever it takes to eradicate forced labor from supply chains,” Greer said. “Now, Democrat leaders are in favor of imports from foreign countries that turn a blind eye to sweatshop labor. What happened?”
Greer said labor unions had maintained their support for action against forced labor even as Democratic state officials went to court.
“With this move by twenty-five Democrat-run states, it may be hard to tell up from down,” Greer said, “but some can still tell wrong from right.”
