exploiting a legal exemption from the 1930 Tariff Act

June 3, 2024 8:59 AM

Nineteen percent of cotton on the U.S. market still sources back to the forced labor heartlands of East Turkestan (Xinjiang), according to a new analysis from Applied DNA of 822 cotton-containing products sampled from February 2023 to March 2024.... More info on enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which prohibits the importation of goods produced wholly or in part from the so-called Xinjiang Autonomous Uyghur Region unless it can be proven that they are not the fruits of coerced labor.
posted by spamandkimchi (20 comments total)

Grateful to these scientists. Thanks for sharing, spamandkimchi.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 9:57 AM on June 3 [5 favorites]

Regarding the "de minimus" rule where a container whose contents are valued under $800 are not inspected:

“All freighters coming into LAX from mainland China ... are going straight to Customs warehouses for full inspection,” said one source at LAX. And CBP is finding a lot of illegal stuff. There is fentanyl, drug-making equipment and misdeclarations of value to meet the de minimis threshold. ... The US is finally cracking down on every shipment, and this is slowing things down a lot."

The Load Star, h/t Matt Stoller's Big newsletter
posted by PresidentOfDinosaurs at 12:10 PM on June 3 [4 favorites]

thanks for this info! i saw a documentary about organic cotton a bit ago. couldn't find it again searching now, but soilassociation.org [linked] looks like it has more helpful info. in the video i heard 14‰ of all pesticides are used for cotton
posted by HearHere at 2:13 PM on June 3

Jesus Christ the link to undescribed "various evidence and reports" in that anonymous opinion piece on a right wing propaganda blog fearmongering about the "border free-for-all" is literally known christian crank Adrian Zenz. How is anyone still taking these xenophobic fairytales or their proponents seriously?
posted by jy4m at 2:44 PM on June 3 [9 favorites]

Isotopic cotton tracing is also being used to identify cotton from countries "like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan [that] also have a long history of forced adult and child labour, as well as harsh working conditions in the harvesting of cotton." According to this group Be Slavery Free, pressure on clothing companies has led to Uzbekistan enforcing child labor laws.

jy4m, I don't know anything about Adrian Zenz, but I definitely would want to know if his research is b.s.! This France 24 report from 2022 backs up his credibility (while also noting that he's a born again Christian and his work with the Victims of Communism group). There's also this long post that debunks some of the main criticisms of Zenz.

Zenz’s PhD is a mail-order fake from a disreputable institution.[6]
Zenz’s academic specialism is theology. He is moonlighting in a field that’s not his own without credibility.[7]
Zenz works for a far-right organisation that is a front for anti-China activities.[8]
Zenz is in the payroll of intelligence agencies/ involved in disinformation drives.[9]
Zenz is a Christian fundamentalist who says he has a ‘mission from God’.[10]
Zenz’s scholarship contains glaring flaws, in keeping with his lack of standing as a scholar.[11]
Zenz cannot speak Mandarin/ lacks expertise with the subject matter.[12]
Zenz is the sole source/ nearly the sole source for the Xinjiang genocide allegations. All the allegations hinge on evidence provided by him.[13]

posted by spamandkimchi at 3:48 PM on June 3 [4 favorites]

I want to respond to that article by some Quora poster fairly, but it's very hard to read things like

I found no evidence that [the VoCF] were pushing ideas like white-supremacism or Neo-nazism or anything traditionally associated with the far right. The setting up of the Foundation, as associated with an actual memorial in Washington DC, was mandated by the signing into law of the FRIENDSHIP Act in 1993 by Democratic president Bill Clinton, as part of the post-Cold War normalisation of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States.[18] This kind of history isn’t exactly characteristic of an extreme right-wing alignment,

and

Seriously, as a UK resident I have say the sheer number of complaints about BBC impartiality, bias or whatever are incessant. Whenever you tune into the BBC, you’re gonna hear something about a standards complaint. The BBC is constantly being hammered about potential bias in their reporting, and is constantly hand-wringing in self-examination over whether their reports truly are sufficiently biased or impartial. Honestly, it gets pretty annoying sometimes. The BBC and the British public are actually deeply aware of the potential danger of the BBC’s abuse as a propaganda machine or an organ for disinformation. And the British public are also lowkey pissed off about it taking their money through the TV Licensing Fee.[23] So they watch it like a hawk. And pounce when they see a screwup. For real. It’s not credible to call the BBC an organ of state propaganda.

and not use words like "gormless" or "dense" or "smugly self satisfied in the depths of his ignorance."

Regardless, the post does affirm my specific accusation, which is that Zenz is a Christian crank, and if you've really never heard of him, I think you should question why he is so central to all the evidence of the Uyghur genocide story, such that its proponents can't just swap out his work for that of someone more credible. To me, and to any leftist, being an explicit anti-communist and American fundamentalist Christian is fully disqualifying. That is the definition of a right wing freak. I do not have to play along with people who would treat him as a serious independent researcher with worthy motives. You don't have to be a Marxist to discount these people. I'm certainly not. I think it's very likely that China has committed some kind of violations of the human rights of known or suspected members of Uyghur separatist militias in Xinjiang. But the evidence of genocide simply has not been produced by credible sources, and its profuse adoption and dissemination by clearly noncredible sources only raises the standard of proof for me.
posted by jy4m at 5:50 PM on June 3 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I tried the Quora "refutation", but anyone associated with the deeply dishonest Victims of Communism foundation is a questionable source. That's as far as I could stomach. If you're an organization that counts the dead from Covid-19, or Nazis killed in WWII as 'victims of communism', you're so nakedly, pathetically partisan that not only should anyone associated with them not be taken seriously, but the default position should probably be to assume that that person is lying about whatever they're saying.
posted by whm at 7:31 PM on June 3 [5 favorites]

While we're on the subject, does anybody have any opinions on the credibility of Applied DNA Sciences? Any relevant credentials other than being "[a] private company, which provides technology-based supply chain certification"?

(Not that I particularly doubt the findings, but.)
posted by Not A Thing at 8:08 PM on June 3 [1 favorite]

I think it's very likely that China has committed some kind of violations of the human rights of known or suspected members of Uyghur separatist militias in Xinjiang. But the evidence of genocide simply has not been produced by credible sources

Wait what? This is the first I'm hearing that the Chinese abuse and genocide isn't happening.
Here's an Axios article.
Here's an AP article on forced sterilization/birth control/abortion. This is one of the acts that constitutes genocide according to the UN.
Here's DW on forced sterilzation
The UN has concluded that crimes against humanity have been committed by China and I think there's lots of speculation that the UN didn't call it genocide for political reasons.
Even a search for "Uyghur" and "genocide" here on MF shows it's been talked about in those terms for quite a few years now.
posted by LizBoBiz at 9:18 PM on June 3 [9 favorites]

Any relevant credentials other than being "[a] private company, which provides technology-based supply chain certification"?
Human Rights First links out to a Reuters article (late November 2016)
posted by HearHere at 2:41 AM on June 4 [1 favorite]

Metafilter really is just becoming a weird site where genocide denial is the norm.
posted by sagc at 3:52 AM on June 4

Metafilter really is just becoming a weird site
nah, it's been a weird site for a while
posted by HearHere at 4:38 AM on June 4

Mod note: But the evidence of genocide simply has not been produced by credible sources, and its profuse adoption and dissemination by clearly noncredible sources only raises the standard of proof for me.

Noting that this comment has received flags and has been refuted by a latter comment. No comments have been removed, but please refrain from saying a gencide doesn't exist when there are credible sources that say different.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:51 AM on June 4 [1 favorite]

i buy everything used that i can, most emphatically clothes
posted by graywyvern at 10:54 AM on June 4

Forced labor? Yeah, the US prison systems have lots of that going on.

After all, slavery isn't illegal according to our constitutional amendments, so long as you're a prisoner.

Criticizing others when our own backyard is quite messy comes across as hypocritical.
posted by nofundy at 11:19 AM on June 4 [1 favorite]

Atrocities, human rights violations in the name of the war on terrorism and forced labor are endemic in U.S. history and persist to this day, but ¿Por Qué No Los Dos? Isaac Chotiner on the 2022 report from the UN Human Rights Office.

At any rate, I would like all my cotton-containing clothes to be forced labor free.

Definitely am with graywyvern on buying used (well as much as possible, I still buy new underwear).
posted by spamandkimchi at 12:33 PM on June 4 [1 favorite]

Yeah I'm a bit confused by the takes here.

It's also a bit of a derail. The de minimis rule is something of a gaping hole in customs. If I'm understanding correctly, because the items are presorted and individually processed, their aggregate value doesn't count as the shipment value? I have to be misunderstanding this.

That seems like a glaring oversight in customs law, in a world where automation and arbitraged labor costs mean you can do what Shein et al are doing.

Like, when I've worked with overseas vendors, are you telling me that we could have skipped tariffs by sending 25 purchase orders for $790 worth of goods instead of one order for $20k? With the (still in effect) Trump tariffs, that actually would have made economic sense - the cost of the paperwork and processing would have been much less than the tariff charges.
posted by jellywerker at 4:35 PM on June 4 [1 favorite]

I won't push the issue, but I will point out that the links in that supposed refutation confirm what I said, which is that the claim that China is committing a genocide of the Uighur people has been primarily pushed by and through the effort of one person. The impression of a large body of research by a wide variety of different, independent, and prestigious sources falls apart once you actually click through.

• The Axios article is about a report by Zenz's employer, the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy. Zenz is credited in the report as a contributer and his work is cited in 39 out of the 317 citations.
• The AP article is based on prepublication research by Zenz, who is mentioned in the article by name
• The DW article again cites Zenz as the primary source by name
• The OHCHR report also cites Zenz, albeit less, but the allegations it makes are considerably less severe, specifically that it's enforcing its family planning policies uniformly whereas before, Han Chinese were intentionally more restricted by those policies.

Take that as you will.

I am aware that governments can visit unjustified cruelty on people in the name of law; I live in a country mentioned in the FPP where forced labor is legal and widespread. Doesn't mean I have to listen to the morbid fantasies of right-wing bible thumpers who are terrified of "open borders" and the enemy at the gates.
posted by jy4m at 7:27 PM on June 4 [3 favorites]

That seems like a glaring oversight in customs law, in a world where automation and arbitraged labor costs mean you can do what Shein et al are doing.
Vermont Law Review offers a helpful summary:
"So, what is the issue? De minimis shipments, beyond being tax and duty free, are subject to less stringent data standards. U.S officials have no idea what is being sent into the country or what is purported to be in the packages that come in under the de minimis threshold. ...
"Beyond the public safety aspect, the aggressive use of de minimis by foreign companies unfairly disadvantages U.S companies... According to the companies themselves, SHEIN and Temu paid a grand total of $0 in import taxes in 2022. For reference, during the same year, GAP paid $700 million in import duty..."
The Time Has Come to Address the De Minimis Loophole
there appear to be two bi-partisan bills currently in process seeking to address this, S.2004 - Import Security and Fairness Act & S.1969 - De Minimis Reciprocity Act of 2023 [congress.gov]
posted by HearHere at 7:31 PM on June 4 [2 favorites]

Forced labor? Yeah, the US prison systems have lots of that going on.

It may surprise you to know that there are countries other than the US (sotto voce: what? no! shock! horror!) which have also condemned those behaviors (impossible!) in this specific geographic region.
posted by aramaic at 8:46 PM on June 4 [1 favorite]