Source · Select Committees · Human Rights (Joint Committee)
Recommendation 32
32
Accepted
The EU’s systemic approach to including human rights clauses in its free trade agreements provides...
Conclusion
The EU’s systemic approach to including human rights clauses in its free trade agreements provides an example of how the UK’s approach to trade could be used to project British values abroad. (Conclusion, Paragraph 194)
Government Response Summary
The government responded by outlining its existing and ongoing efforts to include forced labour provisions in its Free Trade Agreements, citing examples with Australia, New Zealand, CPTPP, and India, and describing other mechanisms like the Developing Countries Trading Scheme.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government recognises that free trade agreements are an important tool to help prevent, identify and eliminate forced labour in global supply chains. The UK will continue to pursue the inclusion of forced labour provisions in our free trade agreements. The UK has specific articles on forced labour in its FTAs with Australia, New Zealand and in the CPTPP. In the UK-NZ FTA, for instance, both parties commit to tackling forced labour within supply chains; and in the recently signed UK-India FTA both countries agreed to provisions to discourage forced and compulsory labour. FTAs are however just one of the UK’s tools for addressing forced labour in supply chains. The Developing Countries Trading Scheme allows for the suspension of preferential trading agreements on grounds of serious violation of labour rights, and UK Export Finance reviews social, and human rights risk factors for transactions in scope of their policy. Work also continues in the multilateral space to support the eradication of forced labour in global supply chains, in line with Sustainable Development Goal 8.7