By Paul Homewood
h/t Paul Kolk
Supermarkets in the UK that appear to be selling products linked to slave labour in China may be “complicit in putting profits above human rights”, a Labour MP has said.
Sarah Champion’s comments come after a BBC Eye Investigation found that tomato puree sold in four leading UK supermarkets – Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Waitrose – appeared to contain tomatoes produced using harsh and coercive forced labour in Xinjiang.
Some of the products have “Italian” in their name others have “Italian” in their description.
All the supermarkets whose products were tested previously disputed the BBC’s findings, while China also denies it uses forced labour in its westernmost province.
In an urgent question in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Champion described the UK’s product labelling as “weak and confusing"
The chairwoman of the International Development Select Committee also called for consumers to be given more information on which countries the product ingredients come from and stronger legislation to effectively ban the importing of products made with forced labour.
Champion said UK supply chains are "awash with Uighur forced labour products" because human rights due diligence is "optional" for British companies.
"To supermarkets, I say, all of you are complicit in putting profits above human rights and I hope the British public do the right thing and make their mark with their pocket, in their wallet," she said.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg8n6416yjo
Fine. But where is the indignation about the import of solar panels from China, who dominate global output and which are also upto their armpits in Chinese slave labour?
Labelling, of course, is not the issue there. The problem however goes much deeper, because we would not need to buy them if it was not for Ed Miliband’s dangerous and perverse policy of ditching fossil fuels and subsidising renewables instead.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
December 4, 2024 at 07:29AM
