On 12 September 2017, the European Parliament adopted a resolution which “calls on the Commission and encourages Member States to seek ways to enable parties having a public interest stake to access, subject to appropriate justification and upon a request made on the grounds of public interest, the customs data collected from parties trading in products or goods imported into the EU”. This data could then help NGOs, human rights defenders and victims of corporate abuse to identify European companies trading with companies in third countries, which are involved in human rights violations including abusive labour conditions, to allocate responsibility and deliver justice to the victims. Importantly, it would help European consumers to gain confidence in the products they buy in a global economy... [T]he EU would also level the playing field between companies already voluntarily disclosing supply chain information to the public and those which don’t... This legal briefing paper examines the pos- sibilities for the EU to make customs data public for the purpose of increasing trans- parency and accountability for human rights abuses committed by companies in the context of global value chains.

[Note: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre previously reported on the case examples cited in relation to HEG Technology, Jinchuan Electronics & Pegatron - includes some company statements]