Background information: Public consultations on Canada’s strengthened forced labour import prohibition

Current global and Canadian context

Labour exploitation in global supply chains is a prevalent issue. According to the latest International Labour Organization Global Estimates of Modern Slavery Report, approximately 27.6 million people were subject to forced labour in the world during 2021, an increase of 3 million from 2016. Children make up approximately 12 percent of people subject to forced labour (3.3 million), and this figure is only a fraction of the number that are subject to exploitation within global supply chains.

The eradication of forced labour from Canada’s supply chains is a priority of the Government of Canada. As set out in Budgets 2023 and 2024, the Government of Canada is working to introduce legislation to eradicate forced labour from Canadian supply chains and strengthen enforcement of its existing forced labour import prohibition (henceforth “ban”).

This consultation seeks to complement consultations that the Government undertook in October 2023 with regards to eradicating forced labour from Canada’s supply chains. We now seek stakeholder views on how to strengthen the forced labour import ban under article 23.6 of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), to prevent violations of international labour and human rights and its impact on Canadian importers, exporters, industry, and the public.

Canada’s measures against forced labour

In July 2020, Canada implemented an import ban under the Customs Tariff, which came into force in 2020 further to the Labour Chapter of the CUSMA. The ban prohibits all goods – irrespective of their country of origin – from entering Canada that are mined, manufactured, or produced, wholly or in part, by forced labour.

In January 2024, An Act to enact the Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act (the Supply Chains Act) came into force which introduced a supply chain transparency regime for certain Canadian entities and government institutions. With the coming into force of the Supply Chains Act, Canada became the only country to have both supply chain legislation and an import ban in place.

Enhancing Canada’s forced labour import ban

The Government is committed to strengthening its current forced labour import prohibition regime and in collaboration with the U.S. and Mexico. The Government will increase the effectiveness of the import ban by seeking to introduce new measures to strengthen requirements to prove transparency and traceability of goods while providing the tools for robust enforcement. .

These measures will complement progress made by the Government in recent years to tackle exploitation in global supply chains. These include comprehensive provisions to uphold labour protections under Canada’s free trade agreements, the 2022 introduction of an expanded Responsible Business Conduct Abroad Strategy, and a strengthened federal procurement contracting regime. 

The Government of Canada is seeking stakeholder input to help inform a more effective enforcement of Canada’s forced labour import ban. This will not only support the Government of Canada’s commitment to address forced labour in supply chains, but advance Canada’s foreign and trade policy goals of strengthening critical supply chains, combating unfair trade practices as well as promoting human rights. In this context, Canada is seeking the views of stakeholders on the potential benefits and risks of the following potential measures:

• Publication of a list of goods at risk of forced labour, informed by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) forced labour indicators and definitions and supplemented by other sources of information.
• Creation of a supply chain “minimum traceability” process in which importers of goods appearing on the above-cited public list would have the reverse onus to provide additional documentation regarding the imported goods’ supply chain journey.
• This new process would be an addition to the current import ban – as the overall ban and previous assessment processes would still exist for those goods not on the public list.
• Changes to the cost-recovery model whereby the importer of goods deemed to be made by forced labour would be responsible for the payment of all costs associated with the detention, removal, abandonment, and/or forfeiture, including any transport, storage, and/or disposal fees.
• Creation of a streamlined mechanism to settling disagreements between importers and the Government on decisions that prevented the entry into the market of specific goods.
• A strengthening of the legislative and regulatory authorities regarding information collection/sharing, enforcement, and disposition including enhanced collaboration and cooperation with the U.S. and Mexico to prevent transhipments.