On November 15, 2021, the Globe and Mail reported the first seizure under the Canadian prohibition on the importation of goods "mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour." According to the CBSA, customs officials seized a shipment of women's and children's clothing imported into Quebec from China. This is the first reported seizure or enforcement action against goods produced with forced labour that has been publicly reported in Canada.
Focus on Human Rights and Supply Chains Involving China
Enforcement actions taken against individual importers are confidential, which means that no details are currently available in the public domain about the importer or exporter/supplier of the goods.
As discussed in a previous blog, however, the Government of Canada issued a business advisory in January 2021 to inform importers and exporters about concerns of human rights violations and the use of forced labour in Xinjiang, China. We understand that the Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC-Labour) undertook an investigation into the Xinjiang allegations, among others. While no report has been made public, CBSA Policy Memorandum D9-1-6 titled "Goods Manufactured or Produced by Prison or Forced Labour" states that the CBSA may use information gathered by ESDC-Labour's research to identify and detain goods that may have been produced with forced labour. The November 15 media report suggests that the CBSA has begun to take action based on the results of ESDC-Labour's investigations.
There has also been increased media scrutiny of human rights issues in supply chains, which could spur more investigations. On November 5, 2021, CBC Marketplace reported that clothing manufactured by Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garment Co. Ltd. may have been produced using North Korean forced labour at a Chinese factory and imported into Canada by a number of Canadian retailers.
Canada is not the only government to warn companies doing business in certain industries and/or regions about these risks. For example, on January 13, 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a "withhold release order" (WRO) against cotton produced in Xinjiang and the downstream products that incorporate it. The United States has also proposed federal legislation, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which would create a rebuttable presumption that any goods made in Xinjiang are made with forced labor. The Government of Canada has not yet taken equivalent steps...
This is an excerpt from a 18 November 2021 blog by Sabrina A. Bandali, Jessica Horwitz and Andrei Mesesan of Bennett Jones.