An alarming new report reveals that cotton linked to forced labor in China’s Uyghur Region continues to find its way into products sold by U.S. and global retailers, with a significant portion disguised within blended fibers labeled as American or Brazilian in origin. Despite the ban imposed by the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), approximately 19 percent of over 820 cotton-containing samples tested positive for Uyghur Region cotton, posing a significant challenge to supply chain integrity. 

A “5 alarm fire situation” 

MeiLin Wan, vice president of textile sales at Applied DNA Sciences, which conducted the study alongside Stratum Reservoir, highlighted the significance of this finding only made possible using isotopic testing, akin to fingerprint comparison.  

Yahoo! News reports,  

Wan said that the companies decided to keep the identities of the offending brands under wraps, partly for legal reasons (“we obviously don’t want to be sued”) and partly because they wanted to be “helpful” rather than name and shame. She did note, however, that at least one-quarter of the samples would have entered the United States under the so-called de minimis “loophole,” which frees small packages valued at less than $800 from paying taxes, fees or tariffs and—crucially—subjects them to less scrutiny even though they’re not exempt from the UFLPA. A whopping 685 million of these packages inundated the country in 2022 alone, according to CBP. 

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