Controversy over the implementation of forced labor in Xinjiang continues, with U.S. Customs stopping a shipment of shirts from Japanese brand Uniqlo in recent months on the grounds that the goods failed to prove they did not use cotton from Xinjiang.
Bloomberg reported that U.S. Customs seized a batch of Uniqlo shirts from Fast Retailing in January because it violated a U.S. government ban. Under the ban, the U.S. prohibits the import of all items produced by forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
The incident took place at the Port of Los Angeles, disclosed U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a May 10 document that also rejected Uniqlo’s appeal to U.S. authorities to release the shirts. Uniqlo is a major brand of Asia’s largest apparel retailer, Xpress, founded by Japan’s richest man, Masayoshi Yanai.
U.S. Customs documents state that Uniqlo had argued that the shirts’ raw cotton did not come from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. However, according to Customs, Uniqlo failed to provide sufficient information to determine that the goods were not produced by forced labor.
A representative of Xunhua was not immediately available to comment on the document.
The ban in question was issued last December by the then-Trump administration, and it is unclear whether the U.S. stopped other shipments from Uniqlo or other brands under the ban. Bloomberg had searched for the U.S. Customs ruling and found no other documents related to the recent move to ban cotton from Xinjiang.
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