Shoes, clothing and commodities such as timber, fish and cocoa are among the products most likely to be affected, according to people familiar with the plans. In June, the US banned all imports across the board from China’s Xinjiang province, where there have been allegations of widespread human rights abuses – including torture, arbitrary detention and forced labor – against Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities. The EU ban will target all products made with forced labor — including those produced within the bloc — to avoid breaching World Trade Organization rules on non-discrimination. The Greens/European Free Alliance bloc in the European Parliament supported a US-style ban. Henrike Hahn, a German Green MEP and member of the parliament’s China delegation, said: “We are not like-minded friends of the totalitarian regime in China. We demand a ban on imports of products from Chinese forced labor and products from Chinese companies in general that are produced with forced labor.” The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is expected to announce its plans this week. “Forced labor is a serious violation of human dignity and fundamental human rights,” a confidential draft document seen by the Financial Times said, adding that it was the EU’s “priority” to eradicate it. The document, which does not name individual countries that could be targeted by the ban, added that the EU did not have time for a “full” impact assessment due to the urgency of the matter. The ban, which is likely to become law as early as next year, will apply to products where forced labor has been used at any stage of their production, harvesting or export and to all products, of any type, including their ingredients , the paper said. “All economic operators, economic sectors, production stages or steps of value chains should be covered,” it added. The EU will use the International Labor Organization’s definition of forced labour. The UN body estimates that 28 million people around the world are subject to forced labor in new estimates released on Monday. The 27 EU member states will be responsible for detection and enforcement and must respond to complaints from non-governmental organisations, companies and others. They should conduct an investigation and may seek cooperation from the country producing the goods. Officials accept that it could be difficult to find evidence, especially if countries do not cooperate. But if there is a high likelihood that forced labor will be used, member states will be able to confiscate products and ban imports. An official said the EU had lowered the “burden of proof” to help enforce the ban. According to the document, enforcement will focus on large companies, including manufacturers, producers and suppliers of goods, following concerns that small companies have less leverage to pressure suppliers and “fewer resources to conduct in-depth due diligence” on these companies. Regulators also want to strengthen cooperation with countries outside the EU to ensure products using forced labor do not end up on the block, the draft said. Earlier this month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the Chinese government had committed “serious human rights violations” in its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. China has denied human rights abuses in Xinjiang, one of the world’s biggest cotton producers and a key supplier of materials for solar panels.
