WASHINGTON – US lawmakers have proposed legislation which would introduce a “rebuttable presumption” that goods produced or manufactured in the Uyghur Region of China are made with forced labour. The proposed new laws have significant implications for China’s cotton industry as Xinjiang produces almost a fifth of the world’s cotton.
The proposed laws arrive in response to growing international condemnation of the government’s treatment of China’s Uyghur population.
Notably, around 20 per cent of Better Cotton is procured via Xinjiang. The proposed new bi-partisan legislation would therefore – if passed – make a presumption that Better Cotton procured from Xinjiang was produced using forced labour. The use of forced labour is strictly prohibited according to BCI criteria.
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