Roughly 27% of tests performed on shoes and garments collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in May showed links to cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, which has been banned because of concerns over forced labor, according to documents obtained by Reuters under the Freedom of Information Act.
The results, which have not been previously reported, highlight the challenges of complying with the U.S. law aimed at blocking imports of cotton linked to forced labor in China. It requires cutting outTo help enforce the law, customs officials have turned to isotopic testing, which can link cotton to specific geographic areas by analyzing the concentration of stable elements like carbon and hydrogen present in both the crop and the environment in which it has been grown, experts say.
"The amount of Xinjiang cotton entering the U.S. should be zero," she said. "So, anything above zero percent should be a real warning." Isotopic testing is not yet a “routine process” for U.S. Customs, Eric Choy, the agency’s executive director for trade remedy and law enforcement, told Reuters in June. He added that officials at individual U.S. ports can request testing if they receive allegations about specific shipments or suspect the goods have links to Xinjiang.
Retail executives and testing companies told Reuters that isotopic analysis is often used to verify that suppliers are only using cotton sourced from approved locations, such as the U.S. or India. Victoria’s Secret, Ralph Lauren, and ecommerce giant Shein are among the companies that contract with Oritain, an isotopic testing company headquartered in New Zealand, to verify the origin of cotton in their supply chains.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Exclusive: Chinese exporters using currency swaps to retain dollars as yuan sagsChinese exporters are using a complicated currency swap strategy to avoid converting their dollar earnings into yuan for fear of losing out on potential gains in the U.S. currency, official data and conversations with companies show.
Read more »
T-Mobile to cut 401 jobs at Bellevue HQ amid nationwide layoffsT-Mobile plans to cut roughly 7% of its workforce in the coming months.
Read more »
Chinese people are living two years longer thanks to 'war on pollution,' report saysTen years ago, China’s capital was often covered in dense yellow and gray smog, so thick it shrouded nearly everything from view.
Read more »
Troubled Chinese homebuilder Country Garden is rushing to raise cash to avoid defaultCountry Garden is raising funds to avoid default, as the troubled real estate giant battles a liquidity crisis which some fear could spread to China’s wider economy and even spill over abroad.
Read more »
Exclusive: Jaguar to launch large electric limo to replace XJShock BMW i7 rival to join four-seat GT and ultra-luxury SUV in Jaguar's reinvented range
Read more »
Exclusive Interview with CEO of Bluzelle: From Decentralized Storage to GameFi Powerhouse on CosmosPavel Bains, cofounder and CEO of Bluzelle, discusses the decentralized storage network's evolution into a GameFi layer in the Cosmos ecosystem
Read more »