New Tariffs Could Target Forced Labor. Is It a Fix?
As Washington weighs new trade measures tied to forced labor, fashion brands may soon face higher import costs — and greater pressure to prove exactly where their products come from.
Reported by Vogue.
Fashion has been living in tariff limbo since the Supreme Court struck down a round of duties earlier this year — brands calculating potential refunds while simultaneously dreading whatever comes next. As it turns out, what comes next is already in motion, and it has a new justification: forced labor.
According to Vogue, the Office of the United States Trade Representative is currently investigating how well US trading partners are policing forced labor within their own supply chains — and whether Section 301 tariffs can be levied against countries that fall short. The scope is staggering. Sixty countries are on the target list, covering more than 99% of US apparel imports, including Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam. Trade consultant Gail Strickler, former assistant US Trade Representative for textiles, calls it "the broadest tariff trigger ever used under Section 301." The mechanism effectively shifts accountability from individual brands to entire countries: even if a company has traced its cotton and confirmed it's Uyghur-free, that country's overall compliance with forced labor bans is what's now under scrutiny. The current 10% stopgap tariffs expire July 24, and Julia K. Hughes, president of the United States Fashion Industry Association, expects the new round to be announced right around that deadline — possibly sooner.
The Problem With Using Tariffs to Fight Forced Labor
Most of the industry agrees on the goal. The execution is where things fall apart. Hughes is direct: tariffs are the wrong tool. Forced labor typically lives deep in upstream supply chains — raw materials, tier 3 and tier 4 suppliers — while tariffs apply at the border transaction. They don't mandate traceability, they don't guarantee a clean break from tainted supply, and for punitive duties to actually change labor behavior, the economic pain has to outweigh the cost of reform. That's a high bar. Compare this to what actually worked: when Uzbekistan's cotton industry was exposed for forced labor, the Cotton Campaign's 2010 pledge brought more than 300 brands together in a coordinated boycott. Combined with NGO and advocacy pressure, Uzbekistan had real incentive to reform — and did. Targeted, reputational, traceable. Tariffs offer none of that precision.
The new forced labor tariffs could reach as high as 25%, mirroring the previously blocked reciprocal duties. But that's not even the full picture. A separate Section 301 investigation — focused on whether certain countries are overproducing in ways that harm US commerce — is also underway, with hearings just concluded. Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, and India are again in scope. If both investigations result in tariffs, Hughes says the combined rate could meet or exceed the original reciprocal tariff levels. Meanwhile, Vietnam is also facing potential action over intellectual property violations — giving the administration yet another lever to raise duties on the second-largest clothing supplier to the US. "They're looking for all mechanisms to be able to have the threat of tariffs," Hughes says.
The forced labor framing gives this tariff push a moral authority that's hard to argue against — which may be precisely the point, because as Strickler sees it, it ultimately gives the president a vehicle to do whatever he wants on tariffs with any given country, ethics be damned.
Read the original at Vogue.
