The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

By Gabriel Rubin

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Just when the world needed them least, President Donald Trump’s global tariffs have returned. On Tuesday night, his administration proposed new levies of up to 12.5% on 60 trading partners, ostensibly over their failure to police forced labor in supply chains. Given that the White House had effectively vowed to reimpose prior tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court through any means available, the stated rationale is a sideshow. The real issue is that, in a world now beset by supply shocks and rising inflation, trade-war policy is growing ever-more divorced from reality.

The new tariffs hit all major U.S. trading partners. That includes the European Union, which has passed laws extensively addressing labor rights, as well as China. This seemingly absurd outcome is the result of contorting to comply with section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows the president to impose tariffs to respond to labor abuses. The timing of the announcement gives away its real purpose: temporary 10% duties imposed after the Supreme Court’s February 20 decision were set to expire in the coming weeks, so the administration needed to find a new, legally insulated mechanism.

Prior arguments about tariffs – whether they stimulate domestic production or generate crucial government revenue – are still important. More pressingly, though, the world has changed dramatically in the last five months. The aftermath of joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran has upended global energy supplies. Rising inflation may already constrain the White House’s push to lower interest rates; further cementing a steep supply-side cost only worsens the situation. While they seem to fit the legal constraints of the moment, further lawsuits are inevitable. Depending on such a vulnerable revenue source will only worsen headaches as deficits spiral.

For average Americans who are souring on the administration, judging by polling, tariffs’ effect on prices is the main issue. By August 2025, just months into Trump’s trade war, duties accounted for 11% of annual inflation as measured by the personal-consumption expenditures index, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. As shocks ripple from the Iran war, the producer price index has risen a worrying 6% over the year through April. The Cleveland Fed’s inflation NowCast, which uses realtime data, puts headline annual price gains at over 4% for the first time since the post-pandemic surge. Even in an energy crunch, the Trump administration manages to find fuel to throw on a fire.

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CONTEXT NEWS

The Trump administration has proposed new tariffs of up to 12.5% on imports from 60 economies after determining they had failed to curb trade in goods made with forced labor, an assertion that was rejected by its trading partners.

The tariffs are designed to replace earlier levies struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February.