Uyghurs: the Senate votes a resolution to ban the import of products resulting from forced labor

2023-06-01 19:59:08

Many brands are accused of using the forced labor of the Uyghur population to manufacture products that are then sold at low prices. The French Senate adopted on Thursday a proposal for an environmental resolution to ban products from the Uyghur forced labor in China, despite formal reservations from several political groups. Out of 343 voters, the text, which is not binding, received 144 votes “for”, none against. But the groups of the senatorial majority, Les Républicains and the Centrist Union, abstained.

A draft regulation is under discussion at European level which would eventually allow member states to ban the import of products resulting from forced labor, without explicitly targeting China. For the signatories of the motion for a resolution, “it is too little, too late”, in particular because the States “will themselves have to substantiate their suspicions that a product is the result of forced labour”.

“A position close to that of the United States”

“We would like France and Europe to adopt a position close to that of the United States”, with a reversal of the burden of proof, declared the president of the environmental group, Guillaume Gontard. The motion for a resolution thus invites the European Union to revise the draft regulation to “prohibit the import of products made using forced labor and originating, even in part, from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, unless the companies concerned can prove beyond any doubt – and they alone bear the burden of proving it – that their production does not involve forced labour”.

“A way of seeing” which is not shared by LR and centrist senators, even if they support the objective of the motion for a resolution. “In the labyrinth of modern supply chains, eliminating this doubt will be almost impossible,” argued Pascale Gruny (LR). The communist Fabien Gay for his part considered the reference to the American system “problematic”, noting that the decisions of the United States “are part of a logic of economic war”. His group had nevertheless come out in favor of the motion for a resolution, with two exceptions.

“We call for European discussions to be accelerated”

In addition to the environmental group, the text was also voted on by the PS, RDPI groups with a Renaissance majority, Independents and RDSE with a radical majority. “Our objective today is for the European Union to take measures commensurate with the challenges,” declared Olivier Becht, Minister for Foreign Trade. “France will therefore be attentive to ensuring that the draft regulation is further clarified” and “we call for European discussions to be accelerated”, he added.

French justice closed without action in April a preliminary investigation targeting clothing giants such as Uniqlo and Inditex, accused by associations of having profited from the forced labor of Uyghurs in China. A new complaint was filed in May. In January 2022, the National Assembly had adopted a resolution denouncing the “genocide” of the Uyghurs by China, asking the French government to do the same.