U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents will detain shipments of cotton and cotton products containing the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) at all U.S. ports of entry, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Wednesday (Dec. 2).
In a statement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said, “The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Trade directed the issuance of a Withhold Release Order for cotton products produced by the Corps based on reasonable evidence of the Corps’ use of forced labor, including convict labor. “
The withholding order applies to all cotton and cotton products produced by the Corps and its subordinate and affiliated entities, as well as to products, including apparel and textiles, manufactured in whole or in part from cotton or cotton derivatives produced by the Corps.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is one of China’s largest cotton producers. According to Reuters, the Corps accounted for 30 percent of China’s cotton production in 2015.
The temporary seizure order is the sixth enforcement action announced by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the past three months targeting forced labor products from the Xinjiang region.
China’s systematic abuse of forced labor in the Xinjiang region should disrupt every U.S. business and consumer,” said Mark A. Morgan, Acting Director of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
He added, “Forced labor is a human rights violation that harms vulnerable workers and introduces unfair competition into global supply chains. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will continue to take decisive action to prevent the flow of goods produced by forced labor into the United States.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli also condemned the human rights violations and forced labor in Xinjiang.
He said that the Chinese government detains between one and three million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in as many as 1,300 internment camps, and that torture, forced ingestion of unknown drugs, forced abortions, and forced labor are common human rights and dignity abuses in the camps.
He also mentioned that forced labor runs counter to American values, negatively affects consumers and businesses, undermines legitimate trade and competition, and threatens American workers.
Cuccinelli noted that “American businesses must reexamine their supply chains for the sake of the American people, and the U.S. government will not tolerate the use of cheap products made with forced labor. It’s a country of origin and it’s still a warning label.”
The American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA), the National Retail Federation (NRF), the U.S. Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) also issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning forced labor in Xinjiang and elsewhere.
We are working to ensure that forced labor does not taint our supply chain or enter the United States,” the statement said. We welcome increased efforts by the U.S. government and other entities to address human rights abuses, including forced labor and the persecution and detention of Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in China.”
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions against the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps and its former political commissar, Sun Jinlong, and its current commander and deputy political commissar, Peng Garui, in July of this year. All three have been linked to serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also issued a statement immediately after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions, saying that the Trump administration is leading a worldwide campaign to impose sanctions on China for human rights abuses and to make China pay for repression, arbitrary mass detentions, surveillance, forced labor, forced birth control, and forced provision of biometric data and genetic analysis.
China has consistently denied the mistreatment of Uighurs or the existence of internment camps, claiming that they are vocational and technical education centers designed to de-radicalize and help lift the region’s population out of poverty. China has stated in a white paper that Xinjiang actively implements international labor and human rights standards and effectively protects the rights of workers.
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