2024-03-06 01:08:55
The EU wants to stop the import of products made from forced labor and has agreed on a law. Corresponding products are to be withdrawn from circulation at the EU borders.
The European Union wants to stop the import of products made from forced labor. The negotiators from the European Parliament and EU countries agreed on a law on Tuesday night according to which corresponding products should be withdrawn from circulation at the EU borders. The EU is thus targeting China, among others: Western states are accusing the People’s Republic of exploiting the Muslim Uyghur minority.
The authorities should therefore initiate investigations if they suspect forced labor in the supply chain of a product. In the event of suspected forced labor within the EU, the authorities of the member states are responsible; outside the EU, the Commission in Brussels is responsible. If the suspicion is confirmed, goods should be confiscated at the EU borders and withdrawn from the European market.
Regulation is “long overdue”
Such a regulation is “long overdue,” said the chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), welcoming the agreement. It is a “balanced and country-neutral law” that also takes forced labor within the EU into account. “We also sweep on our own doorstep,” explained Lange.
Stricter rules should apply to regions and economic sectors in which state-organized forced labor is suspected. According to experts, in such cases it is often difficult or even impossible to investigate the working conditions on site and provide evidence. The authorities should therefore be able to rely on more general scientific findings. The EU Commission should now set up a detailed database for this purpose.
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This could include the Chinese province of Xinjiang. Experts such as China expert Adrian Zenz assume that more than a million Muslim Uyghurs in the region are forced to work and strictly monitored under the pretext of so-called “poverty alleviation measures”. State-organized forced labor is also suspected in the cotton harvest in Turkmenistan and in agriculture in Uzbekistan.
During the negotiations, the European Parliament demanded that the burden of proof be reversed in cases of suspicion of state-organized forced labor. Companies would have had to prove that there was no forced labor in their supply chains. “Without the reversal of the burden of proof, the law is ineffective,” warned China expert Zenz. However, there was no majority in favor of this among the member states.
BASF and VW came under pressure
The regulation on reversing the burden of proof was “prevented,” explained FDP European MP Svenja Hahn. She welcomed this because otherwise “the state’s task of protecting human rights would have been passed on to companies.” According to the agreement, the burden of proof now lies with the authorities in Brussels and in the Member States.
The chairwoman of the Consumer Committee in the European Parliament, Anna Cavazzini (Greens), nevertheless spoke of “good news for consumers”. The law also benefits “European companies that are currently suffering from dumping imports from regions with forced labor,” Cavazzini added.
The German chemical company BASF and the car manufacturer Volkswagen came under pressure in February because they worked with companies in Xinjiang and allegedly used Uyghur forced labor there. BASF then announced its withdrawal from the region. VW, however, referred to an internal review that found no evidence of human rights violations in its activities in Xinjiang.
A law to prevent Uyghur forced labor has been in force in the USA since 2021. Since then, manufacturers have had to prove that no Uighur forced laborers were used in their production chains. Supporters of the EU law therefore warned that without appropriate European regulation, products from Xinjiang would increasingly be imported into the EU.