EU Expected to Ban Goods Made With Forced Labor
The EU is in line to ban products made using forced labor, likely targeting shoes, clothes and commodities including timber, fish and cocoa, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission is expected to announce plans to implement a ban this week, and the Green/European Free Alliance bloc in the European Parliament has publicly declared support for restrictions that emulate the U.S.' ban on all goods from China's Xinjiang province.
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"We are not like-minded friends of the totalitarian regime in China," the Green/European Free Alliance said. "We demand a ban on imports of products from Chinese forced labour and on products from Chinese companies in general produced with forced labour."
The U.S. made the move to counteract allegations of drastic human rights violations in Xinjiang, which include arbitrary detention and forced labor of the Muslim Uyghur minority. The EU's ban, though, will focus instead on all goods made with forced labor in a move to avoid violating its World Trade Organization commitments on non-discrimination.
“Forced labour constitutes a serious violation of a person’s human dignity and fundamental human rights,” said a confidential draft paper seen by the FT. The paper declared that it was the EU’s “priority” to eradicate it. The draft added that the EU did not have the time for a full impact assessment due to the urgency of the matter, the FT said. The ban will cover any goods where forced labor has been used in any stage of production and will use the International Labour Organization's definition of forced labor.
EU member states will be tasked with detection and enforcement and must respond to complaints by non-government organizations, companies and other involved parties, the FT said. While finding proof of forced labor may be difficult, an EU official said the bloc will lower the burden of proof to enforce the ban. The draft paper said that enforcement will focus on large companies.