2023-10-15 13:41:04
More than 27 million people around the world are forced to work, half of them in Asia and the Pacific, estimates the World Labor Organization (ILO). The EU Parliament therefore wants to ban the import of goods manufactured by forced labor in the future. The responsible committees are scheduled to vote on Monday evening. In doing so, they will even tighten the European Commission’s legislative proposal for such a ban from 2022.
The MEPs want to oblige the Commission to draw up a list of sectors in certain regions where state-ordered forced labor is widespread. These could be electronic items from the Chinese province of Xinjiang, which has long been in the spotlight, or cotton from Turkmenistan. Anyone who then wants to import goods into the EU from these regions and sectors must prove that no forced labor was used in production. This corresponds to the rules in the United States. This reversal of the burden of proof does not apply to all other goods. In case of doubt, the control authorities of the EU states must prove that forced labor exists.
No exceptions for small businesses
During their inspections, the national authorities should follow up on information that they have received from non-governmental organizations, trade unions or human rights representatives. In order to protect whistleblowers from the affected third countries themselves, their identities should be treated confidentially. However, the authorities should concentrate their inspections on the products for which the risk of forced labor is highest.
According to the will of the Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg, when assessing the risk, it should play a role whether the entire product or only part of the preliminary products is affected. In principle, the ban applies to the entire supply chain from production, harvesting or mining to final processing. There are no exceptions for small companies. However, the service sector is left out of the regulation.
Victims should be compensated
If the authorities discover a violation, they can oblige the companies responsible to remove the product from the EU internal market and ban imports and exports. Once a product is banned, companies must prove that they have eliminated forced labor in their production chain before authorities can lift the ban. The European Parliament also wants to set a further condition that companies must compensate victims of forced labor.
Jochen Stahnke, Beijing Published/Updated: Recommendations: 32 Christoph Hein, Nepal Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 88 Christian Müßgens Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6
Green MEP Anna Cavazzini, who is one of the driving forces behind the import ban on products made from forced labor, emphasized before the vote that this would mean that in the future, products made from forced labor like those in Xinjiang would no longer be available in stores in the European Union. She goes on to say that Parliament is setting a powerful tone for further negotiations. The legislative process is not yet over with the committees’ vote. The rules can only come into force once Parliament and the Council of Ministers have agreed on a common line. The Council has not yet agreed on a negotiating position for this.
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