(Kaieteur News) – Guyana is among 60 trading partners slapped with a new 12.5% U.S. tariff after the Trump administration imposed fresh duties on countries it says have failed to adequately enforce bans on goods produced with forced labour. The measures, which also affect major economies including China and the European Union, took effect as a temporary 10% global tariff expired.

This latest development would be seen as slap in Guyana’s face after the country was forced to cut ties with Cuba under a decades-old medical programme owing to Washington’s concerns about forced labour in that

The new tariff places Guyanese exports to the United States under the higher duty category, reflecting Washington’s determination to rebuild President Donald Trump’s global tariff regime using Section 301 of the Trade Act after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier struck down his previous “reciprocal” tariff programme.