EU's Kallas questions US rationale for tariffs on bloc, seeks clarification

European Union foreign policy ‌chief Kaja Kallas questioned Washington's rationale for imposing new tariffs on European goods, saying on Friday that allegations of shortcomings in the bloc's forced labour controls were unfounded.

"You can't say that for the European Union," Kallas told Reuters on the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in Manila.

"If you ​compare our labour laws to the ones of the United States, I mean, we have paid vacations, we ​have very good labour conditions for our employees, so it's not really grounded," she added.

On Friday, ⁠the Trump administration imposed new tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods from 60 trading partners, including the European ​Union, over allegations of lax enforcement of forced labour bans, just as a temporary 10% global tariff expires.

Asked whether the ​EU had expected to be included in the U.S. action, Kallas replied: "Who can keep track of the tariffs going on and off? No, we were not expecting this."

The tariffs are the latest effort to restore President Donald Trump's campaign vision of a near-global tariff after the U.S. ​Supreme Court earlier this year struck down the "reciprocal" tariffs he imposed under emergency powers in a bid to shrink the U.S. trade deficit.