US ban on cotton from forced Uyghur labour comes into force

Fashion industry told to avoid cotton from Xinjiang, which accounts for 84% of China's exports of the product

The fashion industry has been told it must wean itself off cotton from China's Xinjiang region, as a new law comes into force giving US border authorities greater powers to block or seize goods linked to forced labour in China.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which comes into force today, assumes that any product partly or wholly made in Xinjiang, north-west China, is linked to the region's labour camps. Since 2017, the Chinese authorities have detained as many as one million Uyghurs and subjected them to forced labour.