US bars imports from 26 cotton manufacturers over Uygur forced labour

Many of the cotton companies listed are based outside Xinjiang but source their cotton from the region, the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The designations help “responsible companies conduct due diligence so that, together, we can keep the products of forced labour out of our country,” Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, said in the statement.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington has restricted imports from 65 entities since the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List law was passed in 2021, according to the department.

“We enthusiastically endorse DHS’s action today to nearly double the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s ‘Entity List’ – while recognising that the current list remains only a fraction of the businesses complicit in forced labour,” Congressman Chris Smith and Senator Jeff Merkley, chairs of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a statement.

The lawmakers want DHS to blacklist Chinese companies in the polysilicon, aluminium, PVC and rayon industries and any company in other parts of Asia making goods for the US market with inputs sourced from Xinjiang.