شAmong them are 10 Arab countries.. Washington reveals the list of expected tariffs on 60 economies
The U.S. Trade Representative's Office on Saturday (June 6) published an official list of the global economies targeted by the proposed new tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5%.
The administration has linked these protectionist measures to efforts to combat the entry of goods produced through "forced labor" into U.S. markets.
The list included major blocs and economies that are both allies and competitors, including China, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, India, Brazil, Australia, and Russia, as well as dozens of other countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Included Arab and Islamic countries
The remarkably published list also included 10 major Arab countries that are candidates to be affected by these restrictions, including Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, and Libya, in addition to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) quartet: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.
The international list also included trading powers such as Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey, Indonesia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Chile and Colombia.
The executives in Washington stressed that the move comes under the pretext that trading partners do not apply strict restrictions on the import of forced labor products, which gives foreign producers unfair competitive advantages that harm domestic American companies.
Consultative Actions and the Most Affected Sectors
Reports issued by the US capital indicated that the proposed fees are currently still in the stage of consultative procedures and legal evaluation, and have not yet entered into actual implementation, with the door remaining open to the possibility of modifying geographical ranges or introducing specific exceptions for some countries before the final decision is firmly adopted.
According to US sources, although the US administration targets foreign suppliers and governments in its political discourse, experts and economists have confirmed that these tariffs are inherently directly reflected on the US end consumer, as US importers bear these costs directly at the ports, and then gradually transfer them through supply and distribution chains to retailers.
The economic data classified the electronics, clothing, textiles, household goods, and auto parts sectors as the most prominent sectors that are likely to be affected quickly and contracted if the package is approved, as the size of the financial impact will depend on the ability of large companies to move their production lines or search for alternative sources of supply that are not included in the fees, which requires a long period of time and high foundation costs that may contribute to fueling domestic inflation rates.
Protectionism and the Future of Global Trade Freedom
This broad package of anticipated tariffs clearly reflects the return of President Donald Trump's administration's hardline protectionist approach, which raises the slogan of protecting the domestic product and rebalancing the US trade balance.
According to the Financial Times, analysts in global financial markets see the use of human rights and forced labor as a cover to impose customs duties as a dual political and economic pressure tool to force countries to make bilateral trade concessions.
These tough U.S. approaches present the global trading system and Washington's traditional allies, especially in Europe and the Persian Gulf region, with complex geopolitical challenges, as these decisions could provoke retaliation and reciprocity, threatening to slow global economic growth and further fragmentation and fragmentation of international supply chains that have not fully recovered from the shocks of the past few years.