1. WTO-CONSISTENCY OF THE UYGHUR FORCED LABOR PREVENTION ACT (UFLPA): THE RE-EMERGENCE OF THE PROCESSPRODUCTION METHODS (PPM) REGULATIONS.
- Author
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Sungjin Kang
- Abstract
Since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (hereinafter "UFLPA") began to be enforced by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) since June 21, 2022, there are about 6,000 detention cases of the "rebuttable presumption" on the use of forced labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere. In addition, the scope of enforcement of the UFLPA is expanding into cutting edge technologies including electric vehicles. In addition, the European Union has also introduced a legislative proposal to ban the trade of products using forced labor regardless of origin. Under the World Trade Organization (hereinafter "WTO") system, prohibition of products using forced labor may be subject to two kinds of analysis: 1) whether the use of the forced labor may constitute a qualifier to distinguish products not using forced labor under General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (hereinafter "GATT") Articles I and XI; and 2) whether the prohibition of products using forced labor may still be justified under the general exceptions under Article XX of the GATT 1947. These issues lead to the analysis on the issue of Process-Production Methods (hereinafter "PPM"). There have been numerous GATT and WTO dispute settlement cases on PPM issues in the context of environment and animal safety issues. However, the existing jurisprudence has not led to the full resolution of the PPM issues. Meanwhile, there is no WTO jurisprudence on products using the labor practices inconsistent with the ILO standards. The prohibition of forced labor is clearly prohibited under the International Labour Organization (hereinafter "ILO") Conventions No. 30 and 105, and therefore, the UFLPA's import prohibition against goods using forced labor may be justified under the ILO Conventions, and therefore, justified under GATT Article XX(a). However, such nonproduct-related PPM may not pass the "necessity" test under GATT Article XX(a) and the Chapeau of the GATT XX. However, the author is of the view that application of PPM regulation in the "forced laborfree" labeling or GATT XX general exceptions may require further international consensus and research, regardless of whether they fall under the WTO auspices or somewhere else. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024