The United States plans to respect tariff caps in trade deals struck with the European Union, Japan and other countries, and planned U.S. tariffs over forced labor provide the legal basis to do so, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Thursday.
“We understand that a deal is a deal,” Greer told reporters on the sidelines of an OECD ministerial meeting in Paris, according to a report from Reuters.
Washington has made deals with Brussels and Tokyo that limit U.S. tariffs on most EU or Japanese imports to a maximum of 15%, according to the report.
Greer’s office, though, on Tuesday unveiled a new set of tariffs on 60 countries after determining that they had failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labor. The EU would face a 10% tariff and Japan 12.5%. A further Section 301 investigation into excess manufacturing capacity could see overall tariffs on the two economies’ goods push well past 15%, Reuters reported00.
Greer, talking about the EU trade deal, said the agreement acknowledged that the U.S. could impose tariffs “up to a certain level” and that the Section 301 investigations gave President Donald Trump that authority, according to the report.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who spoke with Greer at the OECD meeting, said both sides agreed that “the deal is the deal, which meant for the European side the terms agreed at Turnberry with an all-inclusive 15% tariff.
