Canada Floats Proposals to Strengthen Forced Labor Enforcement
Canada is studying several policy and legislative options to strengthen its forced labor enforcement, including one that could establish new import traceability requirements for certain goods and another that could require importers to pay all fees associated with imports detained for forced labor.
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Although Canada already has a law in place that bans those imports, it said it’s working to introduce more legislation to “eradicate” forced labor from Canadian supply chains and “strengthen enforcement of its existing forced labour import prohibition.”
The country is specifically looking for ways to strengthen the forced labor language in USMCA article 23.6, which calls on the U.S., Canada and Mexico to block imports made in whole or in part with forced labor and to work together to pinpoint the movement of those goods. Canada said this issue is a “priority of the government,” adding that it’s hoping to better shore up the forced labour import ban “to prevent violations of international labour and human rights and its impact on Canadian importers, exporters, industry, and the public.”
Canada launched a public comment period Oct. 16, saying it’s looking for public comments on the possible benefits and risks of:
- publishing a list of goods at risk of forced labor, which would be informed by the International Labor Organization's forced labor indicators and definitions and “supplemented by other sources of information”
- creating a supply chain “minimum traceability” process, where importers of risky goods “would have the reverse onus to provide additional documentation regarding the imported goods’ supply chain journey”
- changing the “cost-recovery model” so that importers of goods made with forced labor would be required to pay for “all costs associated with the detention, removal, abandonment, and/or forfeiture,” of the imports, “including any transport, storage, and/or disposal fees”
- creating a “streamlined mechanism” to settle disagreements between importers and the Canadian government on decisions that block a good from entering the country
- strengthening Canada’s legislative and regulatory authorities around information collection and sharing, enforcement and disposition, “including enhanced collaboration and cooperation with the U.S. and Mexico to prevent transhipments.”
Mary Ng, Canada’s trade minister, said the consultations “will help inform us on how to shape the effective enforcement of Canada’s ban” on goods made with forced labor, and will “also help us work in collaboration with our [USMCA] partners and strengthen the protection of workers’ labour rights around the globe.”