The Trump administration is levying tariffs on 60 economies, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the move is tied to forced labor enforcement inaction. He laid out the action on Special Report in 2026, saying the goal is to protect fair competition for U.S. workers and companies.
The number matters because it turns a broad trade argument into a specific policy action: 60 countries, 60 economies, all caught in the same net. Greer described the tariffs as part of the Trump administration's recent trade steps, not a one-off warning.
He said the policy reaches economies that either allow forced labor themselves or bring in goods made with forced labor from other nations, including China. That widens the rationale beyond direct labor practices inside each country and makes the tariffs about what enters a market, not just what happens within it.
Greer also cast the enforcement as unusual, saying the U.S. is the only country in the world that enforces this law. The laws he was referring to are century-old rules against forced labor, a legal foundation that gives the administration a way to frame tariffs as enforcement rather than pure protectionism.
The gap is that the public explanation does not name the 60 economies, leaving the scope broad and the target list out of view. For now, the clearest fact is the size of the action and the reason attached to it: the Trump administration is using trade penalties to push forced labor compliance, and Greer is presenting that as a uniquely American approach.
