Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) tools, and (2) criteria, the Department for International Trade will use to monitor Pakistan's compliance with the human rights and labour provisions of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme.

The government believes that secure and growing trading relationships can enable open conversations with partners on a range of issues, including human rights and labour rights. At the same time, the Government is committed to working with international partners and businesses to ensure global supply chains are free from the use of modern slavery and other human rights abuses.

Countries - including Pakistan - that will benefit from the Developing Countries Trading Scheme may have preferences suspended if they have engaged in serious and systematic violations of human rights and labour rights contained in 16 international conventions.

The tools to monitor compliance may include reports from international convention bodies, reports produced by international organisations and reporting from the Government’s diplomatic network.

The criteria the Government may consider include the nature, scale, impact, frequency and pattern of violations.