DHS Adds 3 More to Entity List in Chemical, Textiles Sectors
Imports from a major Chinese PVC, chemical and textile manufacturer and two other textile companies will be barred from the U.S. beginning Sept. 27, after their listings by DHS on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List the previous day.
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A DHS notice released Sept. 26 announced Xinjiang Zhongtai Group Co. Ltd., Xinjiang Tianshan Wool Textile Co. Ltd., and Xinjiang Tianmian Foundation Textile Co. are being added to the list. The companies will be subject to a rebuttable presumption that any goods they mine, produce or manufacture are made with forced labor and prohibited from importation.
Zhongtai Group “produces and sells polyvinyl chloride (PVC), iconic membrane caustic soda, industrial salt, calcium carbide, viscose fiber, viscose yarn, and other textile, chemical, and building materials,” DHS said in a news release. A related company, Zhongtai Chemical, was added to the Entity List in June (see 2306090011). A recent Washington Post report said the company also supplies aluminum and graphene to the electric vehicle industry.
Tianshan Wool Textile “sells and manufactures cashmere and wool garments, as well as velvet and other textile products,” DHS said. Tianmian Foundation Textile “produces yarn and textile products,” the news release said.
All three companies are headquartered in Xinjiang. All three were added to the list for “working with the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to recruit, transport, transfer, harbor or receive forced labor or Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” according to the notice.
“We do not tolerate companies that use forced labor, that abuse the human rights of individuals in order to make a profit,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the news release. “The Department of Homeland Security and its partners across the Biden-Harris Administration will continue to prosecute these companies, fight for the rights of the abused, and work towards the eliminate of Uyghur forced labor in the People’s Republic of China.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the driving force behind passage of UFLPA, responded to the news with disappointment, saying the administration "is not moving fast enough to list entities."
"There are potentially thousands of China-based companies and entities complicit in slave labor. The current pace of implementation suggests that it could take DHS decades to fully enforce the law. The slow pace emboldens those profiting from slave labor," he said in a news release.