On Monday 25 April MEPs on the Committee on International Trade (INTA) held discussions with experts and the European Commission on the forthcoming legislative proposal to ban forced labour products from the market.
According to James Cockayne, a professor at the University of Nottingham specialising in international politics and anti-slavery, it would not be appropriate to exclude small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the scope of the future legislative instrument. “We don’t do that for product safety standards, we don’t do it for carbon emissions. We have to recognize there will be different regulatory burdens for different size organisations operating in different contexts. The question is not if SME’s should be excluded entirely but how do we ensure that any system that’s built can create a regulatory burden that is reasonable and productive, not counterproductive for SME’s”, he explained.
On this point, the European Commission, which plans to present its proposal in September, seems to agree. “We agree on the need for a proportionate and measured tool. We also hear here, but also from other sources, that fully excluding SME’s may not be the best answer to help them. The question is how do you do that in a doable way, and we will be working on that”, said Madelaine Tuininga, Head of Unit at the European Commission’s DG TRADE.
She also indicated that DG TRADE and DG GROW were co-leading the work on this legislative initiative, with DG EMPL and DG TAXUD associated. MEPs had insisted on the need to have a tool anchored in trade policy, as Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, France) noted in his speech.
The European Parliament is working on a resolution on the subject, aiming to “push a bit the process of legislation” at the European Commission, according to the chairman of the INTA Committee, Bernd Lange (S&D, Germany). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)