Forced labour goods reg proposed by EU

EU will keep a publicly-available database of forced labour risks in specific geographies.

A ban on the import, export and sale of goods made with forced labour has been proposed in the European Union.

This regulation will direct member states to introduce their own processes for investigating potential breaches.

Intended to apply to all companies, regardless of size, the regulation expressly excludes withdrawing goods already in the hands of end-users.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in 2021 27.6 million people in the world were in forced labour.

As a region, Europe and Central Asia have the second-highest occurrence of forced labour in the world with 4.1 million suspected cases.

Read Minerva's previous coverage of modern slavery:

https://www.old.manifest.co.uk/ngos-press-government-for-further-action-on-slavery/

The ILO defines forced labour as work “performed involuntarily and under the menace of any penalty”. This definition, shared by the EU, refers to situations where coercion is used through the threat of violence, debt manipulation, or even extortion over illegal immigration status.

Information sharing will be required between member states and, to assist with company diligence, the EU intends to keep a database of forced labour risks in specific geographies and make this publicly available.

The European Commission will issue further guidelines on the regulation in the coming 18 months.

Member states will be instructed to designate relevant authorities to implement this regulation and to aim for a level of complementarity with other jurisdictions.

Proceeding through the bloc’s administrative process, the regulation is not likely to come into effect before 2026. The current draft regulation will be effective 24 months from its entry.

This regulation is similar to existing laws in North America (namely Section 307 of the US Tariff Act of 1930 and Canada’s Custom Tariff Act) but goes further in how it scrutinises companies’ wider supply chains.

This coincides with supply chain due diligence laws being adopted in France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, which are also being considered in Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and Canada.

These laws require companies to take affirmative steps to identify potential human rights violations in their supply chains.