Brussels, 16/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - MEPs have called on the Commission to bring forward draft legislation aiming to monitor and ban all imports into the EU of laogai goods.
On the eve of the very likely green-light from the member states to negotiations on an investment agreement with China, the European Parliament is banging the table: on 15 October, the international trade committee adopted a draft resolution drafted by Helmut Scholz (GUE/NGL, Germany) calling on the EU to adopt mechanisms to monitor and ban imports into the EU market of Chinese goods made in the network of detention and “re-education through work” camps, the laogai. The draft text will now be put to the vote in plenary session, possibly in November.
In a draft resolution adopted unanimously, the committee says that EU should have a traceability mechanism backed up by a regulation banning the import of goods that use any form of modern slavery and the forced labour of children, in violation of the basic standards of human rights. Known as laogai, the network of forced labour camps in China is where a significant proportion of exports to the EU are made, though it is not known exactly how much as Beijing does not publish any information on calculation of its products. Pointing out that European consumers have the right to be informed of where these goods come from, the MEPs call on the Commission to begin discussions on this matter with China, both bilaterally and through the WTO.
The Commission, which has set up an inter-services group to review the EU's approach to allegations of forced labour in prisons and which says it has not ruled out the possibility of bringing in a ban on imports of goods from forced labour, is requested to bring forward, as a matter of urgency, legislative proposals that will permit monitoring and banning of laogai goods. (EH/transl.fl)