Moroccan exports to the United States could face an additional 12.5% tariff under a forced-labour trade proposal that the Trump administration is considering as its temporary global import levy expires on Friday.
Morocco is among 60 economies against which the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has made findings over what Washington describes as failures to prohibit and effectively enforce restrictions on imports produced with forced labour.
The USTR has proposed an additional 10% duty for economies that have introduced full or partial forced-labour import controls or committed to doing so through a trade agreement. Economies that have not adopted such measures, including Morocco, would face a proposed 12.5% tariff.
“We expect to see some action soon,” US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC.
Because the USTR concluded that Morocco has not adopted or effectively enforced an explicit prohibition on imports made with forced labour, most Moroccan goods would fall under the proposed 12.5% rate unless Washington changes the measure, negotiates a commitment with Rabat or grants exemptions.
“The results of this investigation indicate that the acts, policies and practices of Morocco related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a forced labor import prohibition are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce,” the USTR said in its report.
Morocco already prohibits forced labor within its domestic economy. Article 10 of the Labour Code bars employers from imposing forced labour, while the 2016 anti-trafficking law criminalises exploitation through forced labour, servitude and slavery-like practices. However, Morocco does not have a separate customs mechanism allowing authorities to investigate supply chains and block imported goods because they were produced with forced labour, the gap targeted by the USTR investigation.
The Trump administration is expected to begin announcing new country-specific tariffs in the coming days, the Financial Times reported, as the temporary 10% tariff on most global imports approaches its expiry on Friday. The proposed 12.5% duty would be a country-specific Section 301 measure rather than an extension of the temporary global tariff.
The proposal could erode the preferential access Moroccan exporters receive under the Morocco-US Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 2006. Section 301 tariffs are additional trade penalties that can apply even when a product otherwise qualifies for duty-free treatment under a free-trade agreement.
The proposal includes exemptions for certain products, including goods already subject to separate Section 232 tariffs and other categories identified by the USTR, meaning the additional duty would not apply universally across all Moroccan exports.
US goods imports from Morocco totalled about $1.9 billion in 2025, while American exports to Morocco reached $5.5 billion.
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