Uyghur activists have welcomed a proposal from U.S. President Joe Biden that would restrict the number of imports from China that can avoid customs checks, which critics have blamed for allowing goods made with Uyghur slave labor to be sold directly to Americans.
The "de minimis" exemption allows goods worth less than $800 to avoid tariffs and many of the usual customs controls when being sold into the United States, but has come under fire for allegedly enabling online retailers to avoid laws banning imports made with slavery.
On Friday, the White House proposed a new executive order that would restrict a large swathe of imports, including most textiles such as the clothes sold directly to American consumers by Chinese “fast fashion” retailers Temu and Shein, from “de minimis” eligibility.
It said in a statement that "de minimis," which stems from a 1930s trade law, was being abused. It estimated that the number of packages entering the United States each year using the exemption has grown from around 140 million in 2014 to over a billion.
Most of these packages, the statement said, “originate from several China-founded e-commerce platforms,” which it blamed for “putting Americans at risk, undercutting American workers and businesses, and resulting in the importation of huge volumes of low-value products such as textiles and apparel into the U.S. market duty-free.”
“The growing volume of de minimis shipments makes it increasingly difficult to target and block illegal or unsafe shipments,” it added.
The U.S. government accuses China of enslaving Uyghurs in the far-western Xinjiang region to produce cheap goods for domestic use and export as part of what Washington says is the mass internment and genocide of the mostly Muslim ethnic minority there.
However, China says the camps are in fact vocational training centers and denies reports of slavery, torture and mass sterilization.
Proposal welcomed by activists
A White House official said last week that the proposed restriction would impact “70% of textile and apparel imports from China.”
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Many of the recent high-profile appeals to restrict imports subject to the "de minimis" exemption have been criticized by some free-trade advocates for the potential to create logistical issues for U.S. customs officials, who they say would be forced to inspect more packages.
However, Uyghur American activists welcomed the proposal as a way to further reduce the profitability of enslaving Uyghurs in China.
Rushan Abbas, the executive director of the Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs, told Radio Free Asia that the proposal was a step forward on the matter after months of proposals for a bill to close the “loophole” from U.S. lawmakers that led nowhere.
“We must understand that as far as the products made by the slavery of Uyghurs in East Turkistan entering the United States is concerned, the de minimis is not a loophole, but a gaping wound,” Abbas said, using the Uyghur term for the Xinjiang region in China’s west.
“It is the primary way through which China circumvents our laws against forced labor,” she said. “Now, all branches of government must work together and take swift action to ensure we strengthen our laws and stop the flood of good tainted with forced labor into the U.S.”
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a New York Democrat who’s head of the Congressional Uyghur Caucus, also welcomed the proposal, which came a day after he and other lawmakers called for executive action.
“This quick turnaround by the White House is welcome,” Suozzi said, blaming the “de minimis” exception for, among others, counteracting laws passed by Congress meant to “prevent goods produced by Uyghurs in forced labor camps in China from entering our country.”
Impact unclear
Henryk Szadziewski, director of research at the Washington-based Uyghur Human Rights Project, told RFA the impact of the proposal on Uyghur slave labor was as yet “indeterminable,” even if it was clear it would limit Temu and Shein’s ability to reach U.S. consumers.
“It's going to impact the kind of the weight of business that they can do here in the United States, which is a a massive consumer market – the largest on the face of the planet,” Szadziewski said, noting the proposal was more directed at tariffs than at seizing illicit goods on the border.
Both Temu and Shein have denied the presence of slave labor in their supply chains. In a statement, Temu said it was not bothered by the proposal and would be able to continue to sell goods to Americans.
“Temu’s growth does not depend on the de minimis policy,” a Temu spokesperson said in a statement. “We are reviewing the new rule proposals and remain committed to delivering value to consumers.”
Shein did not respond to a request for comment. However, the company has in the past called for the “de minimis” exemption to be revamped to create greater certainty for importers.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.