Esquel Group sues US over unit’s inclusion on ‘entity list’ as company’s chief says it faces ‘devastating harm’
- The clothing manufacturer’s Xinjiang subsidiary was placed on US Commerce Department list a year ago, prohibiting it from doing business with US suppliers
- Company chairman Marjorie Yang says the suit is required ‘to protect our business interests and mitigate the devastating harm that is accruing daily’
Hong Kong-based Esquel Group, one of the world’s largest shirtmakers, sued the US government on Tuesday, a year after a subsidiary was prohibited from buying US supplies over allegations it maintained ties to forced labour in China.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court for the District of Columbia, seeks acknowledgement that Changji Esquel’s blacklisting was illegal and unconstitutional; the unit’s removal from the list; the production of evidence that led to the original determination; and the reimbursement of legal fees.
“We have been forced to take legal action in order to protect our business interests and mitigate the devastating harm that is accruing daily to our business, employees and business partners,” Esquel’s chairman and chief executive, Marjorie Yang, said.
Last year, a federal inter-agency committee determined that the Esquel subsidiary had engaged in activities “contrary to the foreign policy interests of the United States through the practice of forced labour involving members of Muslim minority groups in XUAR”.