WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, the White House finalized policy actions following its findings from the Section 301 investigation of forced labor standards into 60 countries (see
USA Rice Daily, June 3, 2026), initiated in March of this year.
In February, the Supreme Court struck down the Administration’s use of the
International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as the basis for assessing trade deficit-related tariffs on trading partners. In response, the White House immediately turned to temporary
Section 122 tariffs at a reduced 10 percent level across the board. In an effort to pursue a more legally substantiated basis for the tariffs, the U.S. Trade Representative initiated two Section 301 investigations (
investigation 1 &
investigation 2), one of which was finalized this week.
The second case, relating to excess manufacturing capacity, is still underway and will likely be concluded in the coming months, with proposals to stack additional tariffs on certain trading partners who were under scrutiny in multiple investigations.
“The U.S. rice industry is exceptionally impacted by imports of foreign rice that enter our borders essentially duty-free and have taken more than one-third of our domestic market share,” said USA Rice Chair Keith Glover, who is also CEO of Producers Rice Mill. “We are grateful that President Trump and Ambassador Greer continue to stand their ground through creative, lasting, legal solutions to maintain leverage over our competitors with the imposition of this new round of Section 301 tariffs on imported goods as a result of forced labor concerns. Many of rice’s global bad actors when it comes to subsidies also happen to be weak on their forced labor standards and as a result will be assessed either a 10 or 12.5 percent tariff, shifting from the 10 percent temporary Section 122 tariff. We are hopeful that USTR will continue to mount additional Section 301 investigations in short order, including one specifically for rice, targeting the unfair, WTO-violating actions of our competitors.”
As a part of this announcement, rice imports from Thailand will now be subject to a 12.5 percent initial duty while rice imports from India, Pakistan, and the European Union will be subject to an initial 10 percent duty. Additionally, a number of agricultural inputs have been exempted from duties, particularly in the fertilizer space, however some agrichemicals, machinery, and other inputs will remain subject to tariffs.