Trade ministers from the Group of Seven industrialized nations agreed Friday to eliminate forced labor and shared their concern over such state-sponsored practice on minorities, in a veiled criticism of China's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in the far-western Xinjiang region.

"We affirm that there is no place for forced labor in the rules-based multilateral trading system," the ministers said in a joint statement following their virtual meeting hosted by Britain, expressing their concern over "state-sponsored forced labor of vulnerable groups and minorities."

They noted in the first joint statement of the G7 on the issue that about 25 million people worldwide are subject to forced labor and urged nations, institutions and businesses to work together "to eradicate forced labor from global supply chains."