New U.S. tariffs on EU goods would be unacceptable, EU trade committee head says

BRUSSELS, June 3 (Reuters) - Any new U.S. tariffs on European Union goods on top of the rates agreed last year would be unacceptable, senior EU lawmaker said on Wednesday, rejecting U.S. claims the EU was not curbing trade in forced labour goods as "utterly absurd".

The U.S. Trade Representative's office on Tuesday proposed imposing additional duties of 10% or 12.5% on imports from 60 economies, including the European Union, saying investigations showed they failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labour.

"Even though this was to be expected, the investigation and its findings are utterly absurd," Bernd Lange, who chairs of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, said.

"Following the setback at the Supreme Court, the US government is desperately seeking a new legal basis for its tariff policy. It appears that every conceivable pretext is now being used to justify existing tariffs or prepare new ones," he said.

"The impression is increasingly emerging that a tariff measure is sought first, and only then is a suitable legal justification found. The approach here is: if it doesn’t fit, make it fit," he said.

Lange said that at the end of 2024, the European Union adopted the world's strictest legislation against products made using forced labour and that companies were already preparing for the new requirements to make supply chains more transparent, identify risks and demonstrate that countermeasures are in place.

The European Commission was working on the final implementation guidelines for authorities and businesses, he said.

"The claim that the EU is not taking sufficient action against forced labour does not stand up to serious scrutiny. Anyone who examines the facts knows that the European Union is setting global standards in this area," he said.

"The key question will therefore be whether the proposed additional tariff of ten per cent will exceed the Turnberry agreements," he said referring to an agreement from July 2025 in which the EU agreed to remove tariffs on US goods and Washington agreed to a maximum tariff on most EU goods of 15%.

"For us, it is clear: anything above that is unacceptable," Lange said.

(Reporting by Jan Strupczewski)