Insights

Earlier this week, another case of apparent Modern Slavery and Forced Labour came to light in the UK. [1]  According to media reports, the former UK Prime Minister, Baroness Teresa May of Maidenhead, now Chair of the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking[2] – described the case as “shocking” and showed “large companies not properly looking into their supply chains”. The UK Government is now contemplating further steps to strengthen UK Modern Slavery and Forced Labour laws. This recent UK case, follows a number of other cases in Europe – particularly the EU – including those involving high profile Italian fashion houses.[3] In all these cases, the ethical and social responsibilities – including the legal obligations – incumbent on large companies to root-out modern slavery and forced labour concerns in their supply chains, have been focused on. This comes in the wake of, a number of concerns in the same area with, for example, a United Nations Working Group recently noting a general lack of understanding in the banking and investment community that ESG data and information requires undertakings to provide information and data on the “S” – including, therefore, on human rights issues.[4]

Congress enacted the UFLPA on December 23, 2021 in response to alleged forced labor violations occurring in the People’s Republic of China. The UFLPA supports U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) enforcement of Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The act aims to prevent the importation of goods sourced and/or made in whole or in part with forced labor from China into the US by imposing a rebuttable presumption that holds that any goods “mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part” in the XUAR or “produced by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List” are prohibited from import into the US. The UFLPA’ s rebuttable presumption went into effect on June 21, 2022.  

In response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and to exert further pressure on Russia, the EU enacted its 14thsanctions package against Russia on June 24, 2024. The new package comes after months of negotiations between Member States, and follow, but in many ways expand upon, those passed by the United States and the UK last week (see Crowell’s Alert on those developments here).