The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) welcomes the dialogue and statement made by democratic states at the G20 World Leaders’ Summit on the need to increase the transparency, diversity and security of international supply chains.
From the growing of cotton to the production of solar energy, widespread forced labour abuses in the Uyghur Region have tainted supply chains worldwide. Meanwhile, the Chinese government exploits trade dependency as a vulnerability — threatening punitive economic measures against those who refuse to acquiesce.
Governments must now work urgently to enforce the upholding of human rights across international supply chains, including those set out by the International Labour Organization. Firms operating in the Uyghur Region, Tibet and elsewhere in China must be held accountable for efforts to remove such abuses from their supply chains.
We also call on democratic states to take a coordinated approach to ensuring the resilience of our supply chains. No state should be dependent on any one country for the supply of critical goods. Trade cannot come at the expense of our values or security.
