Many of us are finally starting to wake up to the fact that if a product is cheap, and if the consumer isn’t therefore paying the true price, someone else undoubtedly is, and invariably a far greater one… But despite certain countries being notorious for exploitation and human rights violations, it doesn’t appear to be mandatory in the UK for online businesses to declare the country of origin of products.
Post Brexit I’m presuming we have sufficient independence to unilaterally demand that all businesses trading within the UK clearly state the country of origin of their products; ideally with a little flag alongside for visual clarity. Not only would this allow individuals to choose not to buy products from countries renowned for human rights violations, but would also allow those who wished to, to buy British.
With >40% of Amazon’s products originating in China for instance, there is growing anger within the UK that China is profiting from the pandemic, despite it’s treatment of Uighur Muslims, gradual destruction of democracy within Hong Kong, and imprisonment of those questioning its response to the pandemic.
As this policy suggestion concerns the facilitation of increased consumer control, I wondered if it might fall nicely within the remit of the government’s new Digital Markets Unit.
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