Senior trade officials in Brussels urged caution against the EU’s plan to ban products produced by forced labor, believing that such “sensitive” measures may trigger a trade rebound.

Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of Trade of the European Union, has written to members of the European Parliament warning that the European Commission will not rush to propose laws on forced labor. He said that production takes more than a year, and questioned whether prohibiting products from entering the EU market is an effective way to prevent human rights violations.

On December 22, Donbrowskis said in a letter to a group of members of the European Parliament: “The ban on imports into the EU will not automatically prevent these products from being produced by forced labor, so the problem itself will not disappear. .”

The chairman of the committee, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a legal plan in September that would “ban products produced through forced labor on our market”.The measure was interpreted as directly aimed at addressing The Issue of Persecuted Uyghur Minorities in China.

But East Brovskis’ comments indicate that Brussels is gradually lifting the explicit import bans because of concerns that they will be seen as discriminatory trade measures. An EU official stated that the ban would require the group to drastically modify its customs regulations and would be difficult to enforce in groups where all 27 member states have their own customs authorities.

In contrast, U.S. lawmakers this month pass through The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Law will require companies to certify that products imported from China’s Muslim-majority Xinjiang region do not use forced labor.

Eastbrowskis stated in the letter that the U.S. measures “cannot be automatically replicated in the EU” and warned that if it does not target non-EU import bans, “our trading partners may challenge it because it may be viewed. As discriminatory”. Forced labor within the European Union.

The letter said: “If a ban must be implemented, all goods produced with forced labor should be banned, no matter where the forced labor occurs.”

Brussels is enacting comprehensive “due diligence” legislation, rather than import bans, which will force companies to take action on potential human rights violations in their supply chain.

Dombrovskis said that this so-called sustainable corporate governance legislation will expire in the first half of next year and is “an effective way to address human rights violations (including forced labor) in the value chain.” He also does not rule out the possibility of forcing the company to withdraw its products from the market under the legislation.

Supporters of tough forced labor laws want the EU to take a tougher stance against China Detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs Muslim minorities in labor camps in areas rich in cotton resources in Xinjiang. The European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom have imposed sanctions on some Chinese officials, but the import ban will be the EU’s most stringent measure to date.

Brussels has begun to implement limited import bans, including import bans on products from areas at risk of deforestation, and a battery law that compels companies to assess human rights risks in their supply chains.