The fashion industry has been told it must wean itself off cotton from China’s Xinjiang region, as a new law comes into force giving US border authorities greater powers to block or seize goods linked to forced labor in China.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which came into force yesterday, assumes that any product partly or wholly made in Xinjiang is linked to the region’s labor camps.
Since 2017, the Chinese authorities have detained as many as 1 million Uighurs and subjected them to forced labor.
Photo: Reuters
The fashion industry would be particularly affected by the new law. About 20 percent of the world’s cotton comes from China and 84 percent of that comes from Xinjiang.
The UFLPA has designated cotton a “high priority for enforcement,” along with tomatoes and polysilicon. Any fashion brand exporting to the US would also be subject to it and failure to provide adequate certification or supply-chain details could result in fines of up to US$250,000.
However, the ban poses big problems for the industry.
Liv Simpliciano of Fashion Revolution said Xinjiang cotton is ubiquitous in supply chains.
“The difficulty is that at the ginning stage [when fibers are separated from their seeds], cotton from disparate locations is mixed together, making it impossible to trace the provenance,” she said.
A number of technology companies, among them TrusTrace, SupplyShift and TextileGenesis, plan to use blockchain and artificial intelligence to trace supply chains for fashion labels. Brands can use the platforms to log all their purchase orders and certifications.
To prove conclusively an absence of Xinjiang cotton, brands would need to show a “complete digital chain of custody, where a brand is fully in control of its supply chain from the farm onwards,” TrusTrace chief executive officer Shameek Ghosh said.
While fashion has historically been notoriously cagey about its supply chains, there is now a strong business case for full transparency.
A report by the financial think tank Planet Tracker said that implementing traceability “can improve net profit on average by 3 to 7 percent for apparel companies.”
That is before any fashion stock has been impounded by border forces.
Because of General Data Protection Regulation, TrusTrace is not alerted if Xinjiang cotton is found in a brand’s supply chain.
“Only the brand is informed,” Ghosh said. “They wouldn’t use a platform like this [if they’d be exposed].”
However, blockchain technology is not without its problems.
“If you’re relying on brand discretion to ratify their sourcing practices, then what’s the efficacy going to be?” Philippa Grogan of Eco-Age asked.
“Also, blockchain technology is not regulated, so it creates a risk environment — the lack of regulatory oversight makes it vulnerable to market manipulation,” she said.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS