U.S. bans cotton imports from China producer XPCC citing Xinjiang 'slave
labor'
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[December 03, 2020] By
David Lawder and Dominique Patton
WASHINGTON/
BEIJING (Reuters) - The Trump
administration expanded economic pressure on China's western region of
Xinjiang, banning cotton imports from a powerful Chinese quasi-military
organization that it says uses the forced labor of detained Uighur
Muslims.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said on Wednesday its
"Withhold Release Order" would ban cotton and cotton products from the
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), one of China's
largest producers.
The move, which China said was based on a fabrication, is the latest by
the Trump administration in its final weeks to harden the U.S. position
against Beijing, making it more difficult for President-elect Joe Biden
to ease U.S.-China tensions.
The ban against XPCC, which produced
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-cotton/top-china-cotton-producer-resists-reforms-in-restive-xinjiang-idUSKBN0LN26U20150220
30% of China's cotton in 2015 could have a sweeping effect on companies
globally involved in selling textiles and apparel to the United States.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png)
It follows a Treasury Department ban in July on all dollar transactions
with the sprawling business-and-paramilitary entity, founded in 1954 to
settle China's far west.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli, who
oversees the border agency, called "Made in China" a "warning label."
"The cheap cotton goods you may be buying for family and friends during
this season of giving - if coming from China - may have been made by
slave labor in some of the most egregious human rights violations
existing today in the modern world," he told a news conference.
Cuccinelli said a region-wide Xinjiang cotton import ban was still being
studied.
China's Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded by saying
that U.S. politicians "concoct false news about forced labor so as to
suppress Chinese firms and China."
"All workers in Xinjiang choose their occupations based on their own
volition and sign labor contracts with firms based on the principle of
equality and free will," she told a news conference on Thursday, adding
that the ban contravenes international trade rules and would hurt
consumers everywhere.
The United Nations cites what it says are credible reports that 1
million Muslims held in camps have been put to work. China denies
mistreating Uighurs and says the camps are vocational training centers
needed to fight extremism.
BROAD IMPACT
While the Treasury sanctions target XPCC's financial structure,
Wednesday's action will force apparel firms and other companies shipping
cotton products to the United States to eliminate XPCC-produced cotton
fiber from many stages of their supply chains, said Brenda Smith, CBP's
executive assistant commissioner for trade.
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![](../images/120320PIX/busine41.jpg)
Workers walk by the perimeter fence of what is officially known as a
vocational skills education centre in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region, China September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas
Peter/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/peasley%20lda%20080907.png)
"That pretty much blocks all Chinese cotton textile imports," said a China-based
cotton trader, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the
issue.
Identifying cotton from a specific supplier will sharply raise manufacturing
costs, and only the few large companies with fully integrated operations across
the complex textile supply chain could guarantee that no XPCC product has been
used, the trader said.
"It really depends on how much proof they want. If they want real proof that
this cotton has not been used, that's going to be extremely difficult," he
added.
Major clothing brands including Gap Inc, Patagonia Inc and Zara owner Inditex
have told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that did not source from factories in
Xinjiang - but that they could not confirm that their supply chains were free of
cotton picked from the region.
The XPCC could not immediately be reached for comment. The China National
Textile and Apparel Council declined to comment. The China Cotton Textile
Association could not immediately be reached.
In September, CBP considered a much broader import ban on all cotton and tomato
products from Xinjiang, but after dissent from within the Trump administration,
it announced narrower bans on products from specific entities, including two
smaller cotton and apparel producers.
U.S. apparel makers had criticized a broader ban as impossible to enforce, but
on Wednesday clothing and retail groups welcomed the XPCC-specific ban. The
groups, including the American Apparel and Footwear Association and the National
Retail Federation, said in a statement
https://www.aafaglobal.org/
AAFA/AAFA_News/
2020_Press_Releases/
Joint_Association_Statement_
Prohibit_XPCC_Cotton.aspx they were on the "front lines of efforts to ensure
forced labor does not taint our supply chains or enter the United States."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2020/Dec/03/images/ads/current/graue21EQUINOX_113020_1019.png)
Biden has pledged to work with U.S. allies to bring pressure on China to curb
human rights and trade abuses. Trump in recent weeks has increased action
against major Chinese state companies, banning access to U.S. technology and
investments.
(Reporting by David Lawder in Washington and Dominique Patton in Beijing;
Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian in Beijing and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by
Chris Reese, Tom Brown and William Mallard)
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