Daily US Times: The United States is to block key exports from China’s Xinjiang region due to allegations that they are produced using forced labour.
The proposed bans include tomato and cotton products which are two of China’s major commodity exports.
The Trump administration has been ratcheting up pressure on Beijing for its treatment of Xinjiang’s Uighur Muslims.
China has massively increased security in Xinjiang in recent years, citing a threat of separatism and terrorism.
By some estimates up to a million people, most of them are Uighur Muslims, have been detained without trial for minor infractions, in what China says are re-education camps.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is currently preparing Withhold Release Orders which allows the agency to detain shipments based on suspicions of forced labour involvement.
The law is aimed at combating child labour, human trafficking and other human rights abuses.
US lawmakers proposed legislation earlier this year that would assume that all goods produced in Xinjiang were made with forced labour and would require certification that they are not.
The US and China have repeatedly clashed over the high-security detention camps, which China says are necessary to improve security.
CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith told Reuters in an interview: “We have reasonable but not conclusive evidence that there is a risk of forced labour in supply chains related to cotton textiles and tomatoes coming out of Xinjiang.”
She added: “We will continue to work our investigations to fill in those gaps.”
The proposed bans could have a far-reaching impact for US retailers, food producers and clothes makers.
China produces about 20% of the world’s cotton with most of it coming from Xinjiang and the region is also a major source of petrochemicals and other goods that feed into Chinese factories.
US entertainment giant Disney came under fire this week for shooting its new film Mulan in the Xinjiang province.
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