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EU lawmakers, bolstered by UN report on Xinjiang, welcome forced labour ban, but vow to make it stronger
- Parliamentarians tout proposal as a move towards eradicating tainted goods, particularly those made in the far-western Chinese region
- EU’s 27 member states would need to establish and fund ‘competent’ policing authorities, meaning start date is years away
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Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
European lawmakers broadly welcomed the EU’s draft ban on forced labour on Wednesday, even as some said it fell well short of their expectations.
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The new proposal, the details of which the Post reported last Saturday, seeks to ban all products made using forced labour from the single market.
“We are proposing a new system to eliminate products made with forced labour from the EU market, irrespective of where the product is made,” said EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis.
Nonetheless, parliamentarians touted what they saw as an answer to their calls to eradicate forced labour goods, particularly those made in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where Beijing is accused of operating a widespread system of coercive labour.
“The European Parliament has laid out its demands and the commission is delivering, in many respects according to our wishes,” said Bernd Lange, the chair of the parliament’s trade committee. “This is a solid basis to build on.”
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“The urgency to act was further confirmed by the recent UN report denouncing human rights abuses against the Uygur minority in the Xinjiang region of China,” read a statement from Lange’s Socialists and Democrats group.
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