Latest news with #UyghurForcedLaborPreventionAct
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Recycled cotton fiber company opens facility in Central America
This story was originally published on Fashion Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Fashion Dive newsletter. Recover is launching a joint venture in partnership with textile manufacturer Intradeco meant to produce recycled cotton fiber in a new processing plant in Central America, according to a press release last week. The companies said the project is meant to revolutionize textile production in the Western hemisphere. The venture will be based in El Salvador and is set to start operation in 2025. Initial textile shredding will temporarily be managed out of a Recover factory in Spain, per the release. The partnership marks the beginning of a process designed to create closed textile loops and more circular textiles systems, per the release. The companies added that the collaboration will benefit from the growing importance of the Central America region, where many brands are establishing production hubs. It's designed to capitalize on the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA-DR, per the release. The processing plant's location is close to textile waste and production streams, which Recover said allows the plant to operate in a cost-efficient manner with fast lead times. The companies added that the initiative will address the demand for nearshoring and help simplify brand's compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, a 2021 law that generally bans products from the region over forced labor concerns. Recover's other production hubs are located in Spain, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Pakistan. The company opened its Vietnam facility earlier this year. Recover has partnered with Perry Ellis, Land's End and Tilly's. Its investors include Goldman Sachs, Fortress Investment Group and Eldridge Industries. Recommended Reading Shein develops polyester recycling process Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
U.S. and Xinjiang Cotton Are Locked in a Trade War of Their Own
Far from 'America First,' U.S. cotton appears to be on a losing streak—at least, as far as the country's foremost trade nemesis is concerned. Writing in a report late last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, or FAS, said that U.S. cotton exports to China plummeted by 73 percent in the seven months between August 2024 and February 2025, collapsing America's previous 29.6 percent market share to just 17.1 percent. More from Sourcing Journal Temu Stops Direct-from-China Shipments to U.S. Consumers SHIPS for America Act Reintroduced to Reinvigorate US Shipbuilding Research Draws 'Probable' Links Between Shein and Xinjiang Textile Production While anti-American sentiment amid fraying trade relations is one reason for the dramatic decline, a bigger one, according to the FAS, is the 'excellent weather' that resulted in bumper harvests in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which contributed 92.3 percent of China's cotton this marketing year. Despite U.S. restrictions on products of Xinjiang origin through the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, along with mounting global antipathy toward the same because of concerns over a Muslim crackdown, the region's cotton saw a 10.8 percent increase in production and an almost 100 percent trade uptake by the end of March. And China, if anything, only appears to be doubling down on the province, with production outside Xinjiang expected to fall further 'due to limited subsidies, lower cotton prices, reduced quality, higher input costs and competition from alternative crops,' the FAS wrote. In December, the China Cotton Association raised its estimate for Xinjiang's cotton production to 6.1 million metric tons, reflecting a 10.8 percent year-on-year increase that will account for almost 95 percent of the national output by this time next year. Industry contacts similarly expect ginned cotton volumes in the region to increase from the 6.39 million metric tons yielded this past marketing year, itself an 18.9 percent uptick from the year before. 'In contrast, the Yangtze and Yellow River regions show declines due to limited mechanization, higher labor costs and lack of price support policies, with the National Monitoring System reporting the steepest drop in these regions,' the report said. 'Several industry sources did share that the high concentration of cotton production in Xinjiang poses a challenge for industrial development and that to mitigate the risks, there should be efforts to gradually restore and maintain cotton production in inland areas. However, the latest surveys do not show any sign of the restoration.' There's also the fact that China continues to subsidize the relocation of yarn and textile manufacturers from other regions of the country to Xinjiang. The FAS cited a local news article that said that Xinjiang's spinning capacity reached 29.1 million spindles with 62,400 looms in operation, both of them historic numbers. Spinning capacity is expected to increase further as the Xinjiang government plans to spin 45 to 50 percent of Xinjiang cotton by 2028, 'with the goal of developing Xinjiang into a global textile hub,' the FAS added. Coupled with a recent Xinjiang Cotton Industry Development Leadership Group meeting that emphasized accelerating the construction of the China Cotton and Cotton Yarn Trading Center, developing a 'Xinjiang Cotton' public brand certification system and broadening export markets in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe under the Belt and Road Initiative, Xinjiang will maintain its 'dominant position' in China's cotton supply, potentially reducing its need to import during the 2024-2025 marketing year, while 'developing more export-oriented textile manufacturing to offset challenges in traditional markets like the United States,' the FAS said. Another impediment for U.S. cotton is growing competition from Australia and Brazil, which are producing fibers that Chinese spinners consider not only to be of comparable or improving quality but also competitively priced. Looking ahead, the report said, Australia and Brazil are expected to maintain their position as the primary cotton suppliers to the Chinese market for the remainder of the 2024-2025 marketing year, especially to meet the demands of textile orders from countries looking to shun Xinjiang cotton, whether due to UFLPA compliance or otherwise. But also not helping are the Trump administration's trade provocations. The report predicted that Beijing's imposition of 140 percent tariffs on U.S. cotton will 'all but stop further imports from the United States.' Statistics from bonded zones at Chinese ports indicate that domestic importers have been actively liquidating U.S. cotton stocks in recent months—and replacing them with their Brazilian counterparts—to sidestep tariffs. That U.S. tariffs of 145 percent, plus the closure of the so-called de minimis 'loophole,' will also reduce Chinese textile exports of non-Xinjiang textiles and finished apparel to the United States might provide some cold comfort. The hit isn't unsubstantial: In 2024, textile exports to the United States accounted for 10.7 percent of China's total textile exports, valued at $14.8 billion, and 22.7 percent of China's total apparel exports, or $36.1 billion's worth. And while large-scale textile and apparel companies in China have been transferring some production to Southeast Asia, smaller firms with limited resources may 'struggle to adapt,' the FAS said. Without the easing of tensions, however, the battle between U.S. and Xinjiang cotton will only intensify, perhaps even spill into third-country markets as Chinese garment manufacturers shift toward exporting to non-U.S. markets due to the tariff turmoil, said Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware. 'Notably, while the UFLPA has effectively driven most Chinese cotton out of the U.S. market, China has 'shielded' Xinjiang cotton through increased subsidies and recent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. cotton,' he said. 'We can expect heightened competition and growing tensions between U.S. cotton and Xinjiang cotton, along with a more turbulent global cotton market shaped by geopolitics and trade policy.'
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
US labor groups sue over ‘ignorant' cuts of programs fighting child labor abroad
Labor groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's abrupt termination of international labor rights programs aimed at ending child labor and other abuses. The Solidarity Center, Global March Against Child Labour, and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), filed the lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop the cuts, enacted by Elon Musk's so-called 'department of government efficiency' (Doge), and arguing the programs were authorized by Congress and that the secretary of labor has no authority to cancel the funds. Several groups supporting workers and corporations have criticized the Trump administration's decision to abruptly cancel all ongoing grants and contracts for programs with the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) at the Department of Labor which works to improve labor conditions outside the US. In March Doge announced it had canceled about $577m in grants for programs it labeled 'America last'. Doge cited programs including 'worker empowerment in South America', 'improving respect for Worker's rights in agricultural supply chains' in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador and 'assisting foreign migrant workers' in Malaysia. The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the US, and the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), whose members include corporations such as Adidas and Ralph Lauren, criticized the cuts and argued the decision 'puts American workers and American businesses last' by enabling the degradation of labor and business standards abroad. 'It's just so frustrating to read the shallow and useless justifications that are being put out on Twitter by the secretary of labor and the Doge crowd,' said Thea Lee, who served as deputy undersecretary for International Labor Affairs at the US Department of Labor from 2021 to 2025. 'The abrupt termination of all of ILAB grants is a destruction of decades of consensus that is bipartisan, that is business and labor agreeing together that these are important things. It's ignorant. It's self-defeating, and it's wasteful and inefficient.' Lee explained the cuts demonstrate ignorance of how the global economy works, of the long-term sourcing and investment decisions made by corporations, and the negative impacts on American workers, businesses, and consumers in competing and relying on supply chains where forced labor, child labor, and other human rights abuses are ignored. 'This was a completely indiscriminate meat ax that was taken to these projects and workers will suffer, businesses will suffer, and American workers will suffer,' said Lee. Lee cited programs and research required to enforce trade agreements between the US and other nations, such as the National Child Labor survey, and around enforcing the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which was co-sponsored by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as examples of programs where the work already completed is likely to be wasted due to the cuts. Shawna Bader-Blau, the executive director of the Solidarity Center, a nonprofit working in over 90 countries to improve worker standards and conditions, said the cuts reduced the organization's budget by 20%, in addition to 30% cuts through USAID cuts. 'It's a devastating, huge impact. The Solidarity Center is very often in countries where they are the only external support for trade union organizing and the advancement of worker rights. If we have to leave, we're not replaced,' said Bader-Blau. 'It's critical to the American economy that American workers not be forced to compete with extremely exploited workers in other countries, up to and including forced and child labor in supply chains.' She cited programs involved in enforcing labor aspects of the United States Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed under Trump's first term, to improve labor conditions in Mexico. The programs directly impact US workers whose jobs have often been outsourced to Mexico by corporations to exploit cheaper labor. The cuts, noted Bader-Blau, make it more likely that workers will be affected by offshoring and consumers will be purchasing goods where labor abuses are rampant in the supply chain. The cuts follow cancellations of previous grants, including a program that began in 2022 and was slated to continue until 2026 to provide support for Uzbekistan, the sixth largest producer of cotton in the world, after the country banned forced labor and child labor in its cotton production industry. The program was created to affirm and support the ban on forced labor and child labor so American corporations that had boycotted cotton from the region could begin sourcing from the country. The program's cancellation was touted by US Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer last month. 'State-imposed forced labor was used in the cotton harvest for decades,' said Raluca Dumitrescu, coordinator for the Cotton Campaign. Umida Niyazova, director of the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, explained Uzbekistan has moved in recent years from producing cotton and exporting the entire crop, to developing a textile industry to process it. Though the nation has eliminated forced labor and child labor in harvesting, issues and abuses are still rampant throughout the industry. 'Since 2021, under enormous pressure, the state has changed the coercive practice of mass mobilization for cotton harvesting, however, the risks of forced labor remain high since structural reforms have not been implemented,' said Niyazova. Niyazova said the country still needs programs to establish decent labor standards and enforce them, such as the cancelled ILAB program. 'As Uzbek textile products are aimed at the foreign market, this concerns other countries and people of goodwill who would not want to become potential participants in a production chain based on worker exploitation,' she added. A spokesperson for the US Department of Labor did not provide information on how the funds will be reallocated, and did not comment on criticisms of the cuts. 'The American people resoundingly elected President Trump with a clear mandate to reduce federal government bloat and root out waste. Americans don't want their hard-earned tax dollars bankrolling foreign handouts that put America last,' said Courtney Parella, US Department of Labor spokesperson in an email. 'That's why we're focused on improving oversight and accountability within this program – and across the entire department – while prioritizing investments in the American workforce.'
Reuters
04-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Maxeon Solar to set up alternative supply chains amid tariff turmoil
Companies Maxeon Solar Technologies Ltd April 4 (Reuters) - Renewable energy company Maxeon Solar Technologies (MAXN.O), opens new tab said on Friday it would establish alternative manufacturing and supply chains as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. Shares of the company were up 4.6% in trading after the bell. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. The move comes amid an intensifying global trade war after Trump on Wednesday imposed a 10% baseline tariff on all U.S. imports, along with higher duties on dozens of other countries. Maxeon said the new tariffs and trade barriers were applicable to its legacy cell and module manufacturing facilities. The company added it would continue to prioritize the development of its Albuquerque-based manufacturing facility as well as identifying additional domestic component vendors. "Domestic manufacturing is the right thing to do, regardless of tariffs," said CEO George Guo. The company is also locked in a dispute with the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP), which began to detain Maxeon's solar panels in July last year, citing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). The California-based firm said on Friday the CBP had denied its request to further review the continued detention of its modules and added that it was considering exercising its right to contest CBP's decision at the U.S. Court of International Trade to demonstrate that its products fully comply with the UFLPA.
Korea Herald
20-03-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
OCI Holdings to invest $265m in new Texas production plant
OCI Holdings, a South Korean chemical and renewable energy company, announced Thursday that it will build an independent solar cell production plant at its US subsidiary, Mission Solar Energy, in Texas. The $265 million facility is set to begin commercial production of 1 gigawatt cells in early 2026, with plans to expand to 2GW by the end of the year. The initiative aims to strengthen the company's competitiveness in the US market, as US tariff policies against China have raised market uncertainties. The project will establish a fully independent supply chain using OCI TerraSus polysilicon, which is produced in Malaysia with eco-friendly hydropower and complies with RE100 standards and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. With the US facing a 90 percent solar cell supply shortage, OCI's production is expected to meet strong market demand. The facility will also benefit from Inflation Reduction Act incentives, including a $0.04 per watt Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit and a 10 percent Investment Tax Credit for projects using US-made components. 'This marks the beginning of US-produced solar cells made with OCI TerraSus polysilicon,' said Lee Woo-hyun, chairman of OCI Holdings. 'This project will further strengthen our US solar value chain.'
