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UFLPA Entity List Adds 26 Firms That Buy Xinjiang Cotton

May 16, 2024 by Mara Lee|Top News

With the addition of 26 firms that source cotton from Xinijang, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List now has 36 textile firms -- more than half of the list.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a May 16 release on the additions that the names will help "responsible companies conduct due diligence so that, together, we can keep the products of forced labor out of our country. We will continue to execute on our textile enforcement strategy and hold the [People's Republic of China] accountable for their exploitation and abuse of the Uyghur people."

The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, which maintains the entity list, said 21 of the firms source and sell Xinjiang cotton on the wholesale market, and the others also source Xinjiang cotton. Goods with these firms in their supply chains will be barred from entry beginning May 17; importers can contest that the goods were made with forced labor, but have to either show the supply chain does not include one of the entities, or overcome the presumption that they are made with forced labor.

The National Council of Textile Organizations, which pushed for the textile enforcement strategy, called the addition of the 26 firms "an important step" and called it a significant expansion of the list.

NCTO CEO Kim Glas said in a release that Xinjiang slave labor is used in making man-made fiber, not just cotton, and that the FLETF should identify companies outside of China that are buying inputs from Xinjiang.

"The U.S. also needs to close the de minimis loophole that is facilitating imported slave labor goods, toxic products and illicit fentanyl and other narcotics. Since the vast majority of de minimis imports are uninspected by CBP, this mechanism allows China and others to ship goods with impunity directly to U.S. consumers that violate our slave labor prohibitions and skirt consumer safety standards," she added.

Customs Attorney Ted Murphy wrote that the timing of the announcement was unsurprising, because DHS has to update Congress on its UFLPA enforcement in June, and the department wanted to be able to point to an entity list expansion. "We are expecting that FLETF will continue to add entities from different industries to the UFLPA Entity List throughout the rest of the year," he wrote.

The additions are: