Explainer | Xinjiang cotton, WROs, Entity List and how blacklisted companies may skirt US sanctions
- The US government has imposed political, financial and economic sanctions on officials and companies allegedly linked to forced labour in Xinjiang
- Blacklisted companies can petition to an inter-department agency to be removed from sanctions, or seek judicial avenues to end export bans
This year, the Trump administration has ramped up an array of political, financial and economic sanctions against officials, state-owned enterprises, and private companies for ethnic minorities to a gulag of internment camps and for profiting from their “vocational training.”
Under the Tariff Act of 1930, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on September 14 issued five Withhold Release Orders on goods produced with widespread state-sponsored forced labour in the region.
Among the orders, applies to all cotton produced and processed by Xinjiang Junggar Cotton and Linen. Another was slapped on apparel made by Yili Zhuowan Garment Manufacturing and Baoding LYSZD Trade and Business.
Other sanctioned products include hair products manufactured at the Lop County Hair Product Industrial Park in the region, and computer parts produced by Hefei Bitland Information Technology.
China is the world’s second largest cotton producer, with 85 per cent of the output originating from the autonomous region alone in 2019, according to US Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The US imported US$50 billion worth of textiles from China last year.