Where Does Your T-Shirt Really Come From?

| Posted by unionwear

    Business of Fashion Magazine asks an important question: where does your t-shirt really come from?

    As the US moves to crack down on goods that may be linked to forced labor in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, it is demanding fashion brands importing to the US show who made their clothes and the materials in them.

    A new law that came into force on Tuesday requires companies to prove any imports to the country that could be linked to the region are free of forced labor, adding an unprecedented regulatory layer to calls for greater supply chain oversight in the industry.

    The law, according to Axios, is called The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. If strictly implemented, could reroute certain global supply chains away from China.

    • “Everyone is waiting to see how this shakes out in reality,” said Jessica Rifkin, a lawyer who leads the customs, trade and litigation practice group at Benjamin L. England & Associates.
    • “This has the potential to really cause widespread effects, especially if the law is enforced to a T, completely as written.”
    • Unsold inventory is already piling up at cotton mills in Xinjiang, according to reporting from the South China Morning Post, as foreign companies have sought to bring their supply chains into compliance with the new U.S. law.

    The Biden administration has said it plans to fully enforce the law. High-risk sectors like apparel are likely to face enhanced checks from US Customs and Border Protection, even if shipping from other countries, global risk consultancy Maplecroft said in a briefing note last month.

    Until now, “it’s been a free for all; there’s been no meaningful regulation,” said Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a steering committee member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. “The industry likes to put out the idea that this is impossible, that the true source is some kind of unfathomable mystery. But it’s not. It just requires significant effort.”