New Delhi, June 6 -- Best of the Week is a weekly newsletter by Siddharth Sharma/Shravani Sinha. Subscribe to Mint's newsletters to get them directly in your inbox.

Just when India-US trade talks were looking promising, 99% done, according to the US Ambassador, Washington has thrown in a curveball. The US has proposed fresh 12.5% tariffs on India and 59 other trading partners under Section 301 of its 1974 Trade Act, citing their alleged failure to ban imports made with forced labour. The UK, EU, China, Japan, nearly everyone's on the list.

A little backstory. Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court struck down Trump's sweeping reciprocal tariffs. To keep some tariff pressure alive, the administration quickly slapped a temporary 10% levy...