The Chinese government recently revealed export data which showed that despite a tough new US law designed to bar the import of goods produced with forced labor from Uyghur Muslims that took effect in June, clothing shipments from Xinjiang province rose to the highest levels seen in two years in July.
Passed in December 2021, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) took effect in June of 2022. The law was designed to prevent the import of all items which originated in China’s Xinjiang province based on an assumption they will be tainted with forced labor manufacture using labor from the oppressed Uyghur minority community. However proving the origin of items which are created within China’s borders has proven more difficult.
Chinese state media had bemoaned that the UFLPA had “dealt a big blow” to Xinjiang industries, especially its cotton sales. State media had claimed that worldwide, textile buyers were washing their hands of Chinese cotton.
However new government data quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP) conflicted with what state media had been saying, as it showed that Xinjiang’s clothes exports surged to over $6 million, 5 times the previous number. Xinjiang clothes exports are now higher than they have been since October 2020.
It is unclear if the data is entirely valid. As a Chinese lawyer commented to the SCMP, “Local government faking figures in all areas is a common thing.”
Another possibility is the numbers included a backlog of orders which were made prior to the UFLPA going into effect. Another explanation might be that not all of the goods logged as exports actually make it past US Customs.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it has seen “a number of requests by importers” to import goods using proof they were not sourced from Xinjiang or tainted by forced labor, but they have not seen any importer seek to gain a waiver from the law, or challenge its legality or validity.
Experts also said it is possible the large numbers represent a rush to flood US Customs with items from Xinjiang before US Customs was prepared with techniques to identify areas of origin and identify the products of forced labor.
And finally experts note it is also possible international buyers seeking cotton were stymied by the recent flooding in Pakistan, the fifth largest producer of cotton in the world. It is expected there will be a surge in cotton prices due to the flooding, and buyers may have been driven to buy Xinjiang cotton.
