Gloves linked to forced labor in China stopped at LA port

WASHINGTON (AP) — A shipment of women’s gloves at a California port has been traced to a factory that uses forced labor of people caught up in a brutal crackdown on ethnic minorities in China, U.S. authorities said Thursday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the shipment of 1,900 pairs of gloves will be held at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach unless the American company that was seeking to import the material can prove it wasn't made with forced labor.

Overland, a retailer based in Fairfield, Iowa, was seeking to import the gloves and says it has provided proof to Customs that the goods were not made with forced labor and should be released.

Customs said the gloves were made by the Yili Zhuowan Garment Manufacturing Company in Xinjiang, a region of northwestern China where the government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities as part of an ethnic assimilation campaign.

Last month, the Trump administration identified Yili as one of several companies suspected of forcing people into the equivalent of modern-day slavery and said it would be prohibited from importing goods into the United States.

The administration, which has clashed with China on a range of issues, including trade and the coronavirus outbreak, has also increased enforcement of a U.S. law that bans the importation of goods made with forced labor.

Under the law, the importer generally has three months to submit proof that the goods are not tainted. If not the goods are seized and typically destroyed.

Overland, which specializes in outerwear, said an independent inspection company in China evaluated conditions at the facility in Xinjiang and determined there were no abusive conditions, said Linda Vivier, director of inventory of the family-owned company.

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