Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura, who is visiting the United States, held talks with the Thai representative of trade, and as awareness of human rights is rising worldwide, Japan and the United States will work together to eliminate forced labor from the supply chain of companies (the supply chain of products). It was agreed to establish a new task force to
On June 6, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Nishimura exchanged a memorandum of understanding with the representative of Thailand's trade representative on Japan-U.S. cooperation aimed at eliminating forced labor in corporate production activities and the process of procuring raw materials.
In this, Minister Nishimura said, "Human rights violations in the supply chain are absolutely unacceptable. We would like to accelerate our efforts in cooperation with the United States."
"Forced labor and human rights violations are challenges facing the global trading system," said the Thai trade representative.
The memorandum states that a new task force will be established with the participation of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Japan, and the United States' Trade Representative and the Ministry of Commerce, in order to promote cooperation between Japan and the United States in efforts to respect human rights.
In June last year, the United States passed a law banning all imports of products produced by forced labor in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.
In Europe as well, laws requiring companies to respect human rights have been enacted one after another. We are trying to create a comfortable environment.
Awareness of human rights required of companies
In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which include the responsibility of business to respect human rights.
Since then, there has been an international movement to eliminate forced labor and child labor in the production activities of companies and the process of procuring raw materials.
In France in 2017 and Germany in 2021, laws were enacted obliging companies to check whether there was forced labor in their own supply chain (supply chain) and to disclose information. .
Furthermore, in June last year, the United States enacted a law banning all imports of products produced by forced labor in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.
In the future, it is expected that there will be more cases where companies exporting products to the United States will be required to provide evidence that they are not involved in forced labor, which may affect Japanese companies.
On the other hand, in Japan, guidelines for corporate respect for human rights were formulated last year, but legal regulations have not yet been implemented.
Under these circumstances, Japanese companies are also taking measures such as major apparel companies discontinuing the use of cotton produced in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, and it was pointed out that it is necessary to work together on this issue between Japan and the United States, which have a large trade volume.