The draft regulation should in particular concern products from China that involve the Uyghur Muslim minority, persecuted by Beijing.
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On Wednesday, September 14, the European Commission presented a draft regulation intended to ban products resulting from forced labor from the European market. If adopted, this legislation should block the way to Chinese production involving the Uyghur Muslim minority, victim of repression and abuse according to many observers, including the UN.
“Our ban will apply to products manufactured in the EU, exports and imports”said the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis. “Being industrial and technological leaders means asserting ourselves more in defending our values and defining our rules and standards”underlined the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
Across the Atlantic, Washington has adopted another approach: all products from the Chinese region of Xinjiang – where the minority Uyghur is particularly present – are prohibited from importation into the American space. To deviate from this rule, companies must provide proof that their products were not made with forced labor. In particular, cotton, of which Xinjiang is one of the world’s largest producers, is targeted, as well as tomatoes and polysilicon, a material used to manufacture photovoltaic panels.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), forced labor affects some 27.6 million people worldwide. Lhe UN has set itself the year 2030 to eradicate this scourge, which mainly concerns rich countries. In order and in proportion to their population, the ILO says that Arab states enslave the most people, followed by Europe and Central Asia.
Asia and the Pacific are home to more than half of the world’s total of forced labourers. Services, manufacturing, construction, agriculture and domestic work are the main sectors concerned.