The US government's latest tariff threats have met with strong global opposition. Experts said that Washington's protectionist policies will only hasten the decline of its global influence.
This latest tariff offensive, announced by the Office of the US Trade Representative last week, targets imports from 60 economies, including allies such as the European Union and Australia, as well as major trading partners such as China and India.
The US proposed tariffs of up to 12.5 percent, citing investigations that showed these nations failed to curb trade in goods made with "forced labor".
Experts said this proposal represents the US government's latest attempt to rebuild its tariff system, following a significant legal setback in February when the US Supreme Court invalidated broad tariffs imposed by the federal government under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
However, unlike the more compromising or wait-and-see stance adopted by countries previously regarding unilateral US tariffs, the international community's pushback this time is firmer.
Bernd Lange, who chairs the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade, rejected US claims that the EU was not curbing trade in forced labor goods as "utterly absurd".
"It appears that every conceivable pretext is now being used to justify existing tariffs or prepare new ones," Lange stated.
Similar sentiments were echoed across the globe. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the newly proposed rates "unjustified", adding that "there is an ideological disagreement where the United States administration has broken with what was a decades-long understanding that tariffs are not positive for the country that is imposing them".
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also declared that Brazil would "stand and not bow to the pressure of the latest US trade offensive".
According to Tu Xinquan, dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, the shift in global posture is largely driven by a changing rationale for the tariffs and a clearer understanding of the legal vulnerabilities in the US tariff policy.
The US justification for the tariffs, in particular, has changed and weakened, said Tu. "Previously, the US used 'national security' as its rationale, which is hard to refute. But now it's citing 'forced labor'," he explained.
"Once a country accepts that framing, it effectively admits to having forced labor problems domestically. That is absolutely unacceptable for economies worldwide. That's why this round has met with such strong resistance."
Complementing this, the Supreme Court ruling has exposed the legal fragility of US tariff policy. "Countries now realize that the legal basis for US tariffs is shaky," Tu said.
"And China's firm countermeasures — which have proven effective — have shown the world that capitulation does not pay. These two developments have prompted many nations to recalibrate their strategies."
'Paper tiger'
Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, argued that the deterrent value of US tariffs is rapidly diminishing and that strong responses from other nations will become the new norm.
"The Supreme Court's ruling, the midterm election dynamics and the lessons from US-China tariff standoffs have all exposed the 'paper tiger' nature of US tariff policy."
Beyond the immediate diplomatic pushback, experts warn that Washington's relentless use of tariff threats is accelerating a long-term trend: global trade is moving on with less US involvement.
This year alone, the EU has signed separate free trade agreements with Mercosur, a South American trade bloc, and India, collectively covering almost 2 billion people. Meanwhile, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world's largest free trade bloc, continues to deepen integration. Reports show that intra-RCEP trade volume rose steadily from $5.67 trillion in 2023 to $6.09 trillion in 2025.
Wang Yong, a professor at Peking University's School of International Studies, said that the frequent use of tariff threats is not only destabilizing the rules-based international trade system but also isolating the US economically. "Tariff policies can be a high-risk strategy that proves to be self-defeating in the end," he said.
According to an analysis by the Cato Institute, the US share of global merchandise trade (imports plus exports) in the third quarter of 2025 was the lowest for that period of the year since 2014, and the drop from 2024 was larger than the cumulative loss between 2015 and 2024.
"Because Washington has weaponized interdependence among nations, a globalization without the US may well be taking shape," Wang Yiwei said.
Agencies contributed to this story.
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