Abstract: As supply chain due diligence standards evolves from soft law to hard law, spreads from developed countries to emerging economies, and shifts from private self-governance to public-law regulation, related legislation is profoundly reshaping the global supply chain landscape. This transformation impacts the industrial ecosystem, institutional evolution, and future development of the Global South. On the one hand, West-dominated supply chain due diligence legislation, with its West-centric standard-setting, high compliance costs, and significant extraterritorial effects, may elevate market access barriers, entrench unequal supply chain structures, erode policy autonomy and development space for Global South countries, challenge their governance systems and capabilities, and even have negative human rights impacts on the Global South populations. On the other hand, such legislation also presents Global South countries with a historic opportunity to accelerate domestic industrial upgrading, reshape sustainable competitiveness, advance the modernization of governance systems and capabilities, and enhance international discourse power. Global South countries should proactively respond to these potential opportunities and challenges by refining and upgrading domestic policies and regulations to foster the mutual construction of international rules and local practices. At the same time, they should enhance collective bargaining power through South-South cooperation mechanisms, advocate for a progressive and differentiated supply chain due diligence governance pathway centered on the right to development, secure a more proactive position within global supply chains, and drive the evolution of supply chain governance systems toward greater inclusivity, diversity, fairness, and reasonableness.
Keywords: supply chain; human rights due diligence; business and human rights; sustainable development; Global South
Author: Wang Huiru, assistant research fellow, CASS Institute of International Law;
Source: 2 (2026) Supply Chain Management.
