Trump’s third – After the Supreme Court ruled Trump’s “emergency” tariffs illegal, the administration is making a third attempt—this time tied to forced-labor imports. The plan would apply tariffs next month to 59 countries and the EU, with key exemptions, even as the adminis
Donald Trump is trying again to impose tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down the administration’s first approach—this time not as an emergency, but as a response to unfair trade tied to forced labor.
The timing is sharp. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s “emergency” tariffs regime was illegal. Last month, a different court shut down the administration’s earlier effort to reimpose tariffs using a different, temporary authority.
Now the administration is moving toward a third try. building its justification around a narrower legal pathway about unfair trade practices. The administration says it has concluded that 59 countries—plus the EU—import goods made with forced labor within their own supply chains. On that basis, it wants to impose tariffs ranging from 10 percent to 12.5 percent on those countries.
The administration’s plan is set to take effect next month. Some product categories would be exempted, including beef, coffee, and critical minerals.
Forced labor is the moral center of the policy, and the goal of preventing it is widely seen as necessary. But the administration’s reasoning lands in a complicated reality that doesn’t fully match the clean story it wants to tell. The EU. for example. already has new forced labor restrictions scheduled to take effect late next year—yet it is still facing new tariffs. The U.S. also has forced-labor import concerns of its own, despite laws designed to stop them.
The question many Americans are likely to ask is whether forced labor is driving the tariff strategy—or whether it’s being used as the legal hook to keep a broader agenda moving despite repeated setbacks in court.
Even as the administration presses for new tariffs. it is also fighting to hold onto $166 billion in revenue it earned illegally from Trump’s first round of tariffs. That dispute sits alongside the new plan like a second drumbeat: the fight over what tariffs can be justified. and the fight over what money the administration gets to keep.
For readers watching the administration’s shifting legal theories, the sequence is the story. Each time a court blocks the prior rationale. the justification is retooled—while the tariffs effort continues forward. scheduled for next month. backed by a forced-labor investigation that the administration says now spans 59 countries and the EU.
Trump tariffs Supreme Court forced labor imports unfair trade practices Mexico Canada European Union 59 countries plus EU 10% 12.5% tariffs beef coffee critical minerals exemptions $166 billion revenue dispute