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In 2019 the fashion industry generated $2.5trn in global revenues, making it one of the largest industries in the world. But when COVID-19 struck in 2020, it virtually collapsed.
Exports of raw materials from China began to slow in January last year, and subsequent lockdowns around the world meant shoppers stayed at home, retailers shuttered stores, and billions of dollars of orders were cancelled. Thousands of factories faced ruin, and many closed either temporarily or permanently.
In countries such as India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and thousands more were taken ill as COVID-19 spread through cramped production lines. Where people dared to speak up about unsafe or unfair conditions, they were often met with redundancy or brutality.
What the Latest Clampdown on Xinjiang Cotton Means for Fashion businessoffashion.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessoffashion.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Customs and Border Protection just picked a fight with the Chinese Communist Party
America should ramp up this powerful weapon against modern-day slavery
The federal government has a powerful tool at its disposal in the fight against human trafficking and forced labor. It’s one that should be used more.
It’s called a Withhold Release Order (WRO), and it allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to halt the import of goods made by slaves. The government has had this power since 1930, but has only recently ramped up its use. In 2016, Congress closed a loophole in the law, and in the years since then CBP has issued more WROs than ever before. Between 1930 and 2019, CBP issued 51 WROs. Last year alone it issued 13 and detained almost 300 shipments worth $50 million.
The Associated Press
An elderly Chinese man looks at map of Chinese showing its different ethnic groups and the slogan Ethnic Unity in Beijing, China Monday, Jan. 11, 2021. A Chinese official on Monday denied Beijing has imposed coercive birth control measures among Muslim minority women, following an outcry over a tweet by the Chinese Embassy in Washington claiming that government polices had freed women of the Uighur ethnic group from being baby-making machines. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
WASHINGTON The U.S. government announced Wednesday that it will halt imports of cotton and tomatoes from the Uighur region of China in its most sweeping action yet to pressure the Communist Party over its campaign against ethnic minorities.