The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) included the Dominican Republic on a list of 60 countries that allegedly produce goods using forced labor.
For those countries, it has proposed the imposition of an additional tariff of 10% or 12.5%, due to the alleged lack of measures in the fight against the trade of goods produced with forced labor.
“It is unacceptable that our most important trading partners do not address the importation of goods made with forced labor. This creates a dynamic in which American workers are forced to compete globally on uneven terms,” stated Ambassador Jamieson Greer.
The decision is legally based on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, under which Ambassador Jamieson Greer initiated 60 simultaneous investigations on March 12.
Those 60 trading partners include the European Union, the United Kingdom, and China, which are accused of a lack of measures in the fight against the trade of goods produced with forced labor.
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In its findings, it has determined that the failure of each of the 60 economies investigated to effectively impose and enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor “is unreasonable or discriminatory” and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce, and is therefore actionable under Section 301(b)(1) of the Trade Act.
