On July 23, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, it would impose additional tariffs of 10 to 12.5 percent on imports from dozens of countries and regions on the grounds of so-called "forced labor," replacing a set of import tariffs that were due to expire.
Disregarding trade rules, the U.S. has directly converted unverified allegations about human rights into tariff pressure. Whether so-called "forced labor" exists should be determined by facts and evidence, not by political judgment, and certainly not decided at will by individual countries to suit their own political needs.
Yet the U.S. presumes guilt in advance and forces companies to prove their own innocence, treating unfounded rumors as fact while dismissing publicly available evidence. These so-called "human rights reviews," conducted in the name of protecting human rights, are in fact blatant interference in other countries' labor governance, industrial policies and development paths.
The U.S. first labels specific regions, industries and even the enterprises linked to them through supply chains as so-called "high-risk" targets. Without evidence of any legal violations, companies are placed under suspicion and required to trace their products, raw materials, components and multi-tier suppliers to an almost limitless extent. They are also forced to keep producing additional labor contracts, wage records, procurement receipts and personnel information.
Even when a company has submitted extensive documentation, if any single link fails to meet the unilateral requirements set by the U.S., that documentation may still be deemed insufficient. This is not fact-finding. It is the U.S. presuming guilt from the outset and forcing companies in other countries to prove their innocence.
The U.S. also substitutes scattered information for comprehensive investigations. Labor policy falls within each country's sovereign rights, yet the U.S. imposes its own standards on others, deliberately distorting other countries' normal practices and leveling baseless accusations against them.
More absurd still, the U.S. openly applies double standards in its review procedures. Material that supports a predetermined allegation is readily accepted even when its sources are vague and its methodology questionable, while material showing that workers are employed voluntarily, receive pay and have improved their lives can easily be rejected even when it is specific and drawn from public sources.
Workers' own accounts, companies' employment records, levels of industrial mechanization and changes in employment income, all of which should serve as important evidence for assessing labor conditions, are instead dismissed for failing to fit the preset U.S. narrative.
Under the guise of human rights reviews, the U.S. manipulates evidentiary standards and abuses market-access measures to suppress companies from other countries and obstruct their industrial development.
Such high-handed interference harms workers' direct interests and erodes developing countries' equal right to development. While claiming to protect workers, the U.S. undermines the very foundation of employment by imposing tariffs and shutting companies out of its market. While waving the banner of human rights, it deprives people in other countries of opportunities to improve their lives. Its professed human rights stance is starkly at odds with its actual conduct.
A happy life for all is the greatest human right. People in every country have the right to independently choose their own development paths based on their national conditions, cultivate competitive industries, participate in global trade on an equal footing and share in the fruits of development.
Yet the U.S. forcibly converts unverified political speculation into real market barriers. Even when a country builds competitiveness through its resource endowments, technological accumulation and industrial upgrading, it may still find itself barred from major markets because of groundless allegations.
Human rights should not become a tool of hegemony, nor a means of suppression. No country has the right to invoke human rights as a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries or to infringe upon other peoples' legitimate right to pursue development and build a better life.
Wang Xigen is dean of the Institute for Human Rights Law at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a national human rights education and training base, and dean of the university's School of Law. He is also a distinguished professor of the Chang Jiang Scholars Program. Peng Yixuan is a special-appointment associate professor at the School of Law, Humanities and Sociology, Wuhan University of Technology.
