{"id":715325,"date":"2026-06-04T19:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715325\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:05:13","slug":"us-tariffs-on-australia-anti-slavery-commissioner-chris-evans-accuses-trump-administration-of-weaponising-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715325\/","title":{"rendered":"US tariffs on Australia: Anti-slavery commissioner Chris Evans accuses Trump administration of weaponising human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The federal government\u2019s anti-slavery commissioner has accused the Trump administration of weaponising important human rights issues by seeking to impose tariffs against Australia and dozens of other countries for failing to do enough to prevent forced labour.<\/p>\n

The government will push for the US to scrap the proposed 12.5 per cent tariff, or at least reduce it to the less onerous 10 per cent rate suggested for some other countries, in its negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldDonald Trump\u2019s administration has proposed a new 12.5 per cent tariff on Australian exports.Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Commissioner Chris Evans, a former Labor cabinet minister, conceded Australia was not doing enough to prevent forced labour in supply chains but said the Trump administration was not motivated by a genuine concern about worker rights.<\/p>\n

Evans said the United States Trade Representative\u2019s office had only conducted a \u201cvery cursory examination of the issues\u201d involving one interview with Australian officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a show trial effectively,\u201d he told this masthead of the investigation released on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Australia<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about modern slavery, which is an important human rights issue. This is a distraction and a weaponisation of trade measures, not about modern slavery concerns … This is an attack on Australian businesses and jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he pushed back on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s claim that Australia has \u201crobust\u201d and \u201cworld-leading legislation\u201d in place to address forced labour and modern slavery.<\/p>\n

Evans said Australia\u2019s Modern Slavery Act was ahead of its time when passed in 2018, but was now too light touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legislation is not fit-for-purpose or at a gold standard level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have real problem with our supply chains, especially in South-East Asia. We need to be doing more to ensure the products Australians are buying are not tainted by forced labour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evans said Australia needed to introduce a due diligence obligation requiring Australian companies to move beyond disclosure and take reasonable, proportionate action to prevent forced labour in their supply chains.<\/p>\n

But he said Australia was \u201cby no means the worst offender\u201d and that the Trump administration\u2019s push was \u201cmotivated by the wrong reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear there is an agenda to impose higher tariff rates by the Trump administration,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trade Minister Don Farrell used a face-to-face meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development gathering in Paris to argue the proposed tariffs should not be applied to Australia.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Garment<\/a><\/p>\n

Albanese told ABC radio on Thursday: \u201cAny tariff on Australian exports to the United States are unjustified, they\u2019re inconsistent with our free trade agreement, and also with regard to the specifics that have been put forward by their trade representative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia has robust, comprehensive, and world-leading legislation addressing forced labour and modern slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe continue to use every opportunity that we have to advocate that US tariffs imposed in Australia are unwarranted, and of course, our view is that tariffs are actually a penalty on consumers in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major Australian exports to the US, including beef, pharmaceuticals, rare earths and gold, are excluded from the proposed tariffs, suggesting the overall economic impact would not be dramatic.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said: \u201cAustralia continues to assert our view that we are not supportive of tariffs, and we continue to value open trade that has benefited both Australia and the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the government\u2019s position that we do not believe there is a basis for these additional trade measures, and that is what we will continue to robustly put.\u201d<\/p>\n

A small group of six economies \u2013 Canada, the European Union, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico and Pakistan \u2013 were hit with a lower proposed 10 per cent tariff because the investigation found they were the only countries who had \u201cnot failed to impose a forced labour import prohibition\u201d.<\/p>\n

An existing 10 per cent tariff on all countries, including Australia, that was imposed by the Trump administration in February is due to expire in July.<\/p>\n

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\"MatthewMatthew Knott<\/a> is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> or email<\/a>.\"NickNick Newling<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-715325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}