CBP Looking Into Reported Use of Chinese Forced Labor on Imported Sportswear

CBP will take a closer look at the possible use of Chinese internment camp forced labor in the production of imported sportswear, following an Associated Press report, an agency spokesman said. "CBP is reviewing the information published this week" by the AP and another report from The New York Times that linked the internment camps to goods sold by Badger Sportswear, the spokesman said. Those reports "for the first time [appear] to link the internment camps identified in Western China to the importation of goods produced by forced labor by a U.S. company," he said.

The internment camps hold groups of Uighurs, Kazakhs and other minority groups found in China that are mostly Muslim, the AP reported. China says it uses the camps as training centers to help incorporate the minority groups into Chinese culture, but the news reports found a more prisonlike setting. China makes clothing at such camps, mostly for China and other Central Asian markets, though some does reach the U.S. and Europe, according to The New York Times.

The connection to Badger involves the use of a Chinese supplier named Hetian Taida Apparel Co. Ltd. The chairman of Hetian Taida, which has a facility inside one training compound in the Xinjiang city of Hotan, told the AP it does employ some trainees at its facility. Badger said in a notice on its website that the company "immediately suspended ordering product from Hetian Taida and its affiliates while an investigation is conducted" and "one percent or less of our products were sourced from Hetian Taida."

The company also "will not ship to customers any product in our possession from that facility," it said. Badger also noted that the Hetian Taida facility is "certified by Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP), an independent, non-profit team of global social compliance experts." Several colleges in Maine said they would stop selling Badger products as a result of the reports, according to a report in the Bangor Daily News.

Imports of goods made with forced labor is illegal under 19 USC Section 1307, and CBP "is actively taking steps to obtain and develop all relevant information necessary to determine whether violations of section 1307 exist as set forth in these news articles," the CBP spokesman said. "As always, we encourage stakeholders in the trade community to closely examine their supply chains to ensure goods imported into the United States are not mined, produced or manufactured, wholly or in part, with prohibited forms of labor, i.e., slave, convict, indentured, forced or indentured child labor."