SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said on Friday (March 13) that it will engage the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) over a second unfair trade practices probe the American agency has initiated.
USTR said on March 12 that it has started investigations into 60 economies, including Singapore, on the importation of goods produced with forced labour.
Other than Singapore, the likes of Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea are also being investigated.
Also subject to the probe are Singapore’s Asean neighbours Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
According to USTR’s announcement, the 60 economies were identified on the basis that “none has adopted or effectively enforced a forced labour import prohibition to date”.
“For too long, American workers and firms have been forced to compete against foreign producers who may have an artificial cost advantage gained from the scourge of forced labour,” said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in a statement on March 12.
“These investigations will determine whether foreign governments have taken sufficient steps to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labour, and how the failure to eradicate these abhorrent practices impacts US workers and businesses.”
It was the second probe that the American agency has initiated against Singapore, after announcing on March 11 that it had started one against the Republic and 15 other economies relating to structural excess capacity and production in certain manufacturing sectors.
MTI said in its statement that the 16 economies subject to the first probe are among the 60 involved in the second probe.
The two trade probes set the stage for new tariffs, the centrepiece of a push to replace tariffs struck down by the US Supreme Court.
The investigations are needed for US President Donald Trump to unilaterally place duties on imports from specific territories deemed to employ unfair trading practices. - The Straits Times/ANN
