Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says her government plans to soon table a bill to boost Canada’s legal means to stop the import of products made by forced labour.
The announcement comes shortly after the Trump administration threatened a 10 percent blanket tariff related to the issue that would apply to 60 of its trading partners. In the case of Canada, the tariff would apply to all non-Canada–U.S.–Mexico (CUSMA) compliant goods entering the United States.
The U.S. trade representative cited Canada’s failure to do enough to stop importation of products made via forced labour as grounds for the tariff, saying the goods may have an unfair price advantage due to being made at a particularly low cost.
The Trump administration has also raised a number of other disagreements with Canadian trade policy ahead of the July 1 review of the CUSMA trade agreement.
Anand said the bill strengthening provisions against imports made via forced labour could be tabled as early as June 12, but did not provide further details on what specifics it would contain.
Existing Law
Canada specifically prohibits the importation of goods that are “mined, manufactured or produced wholly or in part by forced labour” as well as goods made by prison labour.
This provision has existed as an amendment in the Customs Tariff since 2020 and forms part of Canada’s obligations under CUSMA, which was signed in 2018 and went into effect in 2020.
Ottawa also enacted a bill in January 2024 requiring large businesses and federal institutions to publicly release the information on their efforts to find and eliminate forced labour and child labour in their supply chains.
Conservative foreign affairs critic Michael Chong has repeatedly questioned the need for new legislation, saying Canada’s issue is not its laws but its lack of effective enforcement.
Chong asked Anand why Canada is putting forward a new bill if it already has tough measures against importation of goods made through forced labour, during Question Period June 11 in the House of Commons.
Anand’s parliamentary secretary Mona Fortier stated that the bill will seek to “strengthen” existing protections.
“Canada already has strong protections in place. We will take further action to strengthen them through new legislation,” she told Chong.
Washington has said that the main concern on importation of goods made through forced labour is not Canada’s laws but its lack of effective enforcement. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) noted that only a small number of shipments have been blocked by the Canada Border Services Agency despite Canada’s laws.
“The number of enforcement actions Canada has taken to prevent the entry of forced labor goods is minimal,” the USTR wrote in a June 2 report proposing the additional 10 percent tariff on Canada and 59 other nations, including Mexico, Australia, Brazil, South Korea, the U.K., and the European Union.
