23 2021). Furthermore, the ILO notes that the CRC and ILO Conventions on child labour are in no way at odds with each other (ibid). To further compel exporting countries to root out the practice of child labour, one hard-line option at the disposal of importing countries involves the imposition of trade conditionality to the point of sanctions. For example, since the removal of the consumptive demand exemption in 2016, the U.S. is banning goods from entering the country that are believed to be produced with forced labour, including forced or indentured child labour. What began as isolated sanctions against Xinjiang textile makers in August of 2020 (U.S. Department of the Treasury, 2020) became a blanket ban on all Xinjiang cotton in January of 2021 – impacting 87% of China’s cotton crop and, consequently, one-fifth of the world’s supply (Dou et al., 2021). Also the U.K. Government (2021) has taken measures to halting the importation of goods that are linked to modern-day slavery in China. Concerted supply chain action also at the individual corporate level – in the case of severe human rights impacts – is e.g. also advised in the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals (OECD, 2016). Adopted in 2011, the OECD Guidance features a due diligence framework for minerals production and trade, and Annex II provides for companies to cease business relationships where their supply chains are linked, inter alia, to the Worst Forms of Child Labour (WFCL).
II. Research Objectives Overarching objective: This study seeks to provide evidence-based policy options that may enhance the EU’s position to reduce child labour through its demand in traded goods, given that current trade policy does not apply its own leverage on the issue to its full potential. The EU’s leverage on the issue will be enhanced by introducing additional conditionality, accountability, and corporate liability into future legislation, including bilateral trade agreements and mandatory due diligence provisions. What are the relevant instruments at the disposal of policymakers, as revealed by precedents? What toolkits would need to be created? Scientific evidence and arguments will be furnished, resulting in an empirical basis for such policy options. From the position of child wellbeing, maximally beneficial outcomes will be proposed, mindful of externalities. Overarching framework: Pillar I and Pillar II of the United Nations (UN, 2011) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) serve as the overarching framework of this study. Unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011, the UNGPs put forward 31 principles how nation-states and businesses should uphold human rights, organised according to three pillars (see Table 3).
