TRADE AND ILLEGAL LABOUR: A NEW PARADIGM - ERIKA SZYSZCZAK UK TRADE POLICY OBSERVATORY

3 The new provisions complement established legal measures to combat the use of illegal labour (for example, forced labour, modern slavery and trafficking) in the production of goods and, in the case of the CSDD, goods and services, created in the EU, or placed on the EU market from a third country, or where part of the production process takes place outside of the EU. [...] (ii) An order addressing the economic operators that are the subject of the investigation to withdraw the targeted products from the EU market (including products already placed on the market); and (iii) An order addressing the economic operators that have been the subject of the investigation, to dispose of the “at risk” products following national law and EU law. [...] However, the Directive is an example of Bradford’s “Brussels Effect” by capturing foreign firms operating in the EU.9 The Directive applies to the firm’s activities (often the parent company) and the operations of subsidiaries. [...] The ECHR Court recognises the evolution of rights in international law: “… the issue of victim status must be interpreted in an evolutive manner … and that any excessively formalistic interpretation of that concept would make protection of the rights guaranteed by the Convention ineffectual and illusory.” (para 482) The CSDDD creates the possibility of access to a remedy in Article 22(5) and Recit. [...] COMPLEMENTARY APPROACHES The limited application of the CSDDD to large companies and the need to marry the use of trade measures to individual human rights remedies raises the issue of whether additional complementary approaches are needed to tackle the use of illegal labour in supply chains.