{"id":888,"date":"2021-10-15T18:26:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T15:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/?p=888"},"modified":"2021-10-15T18:26:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T15:26:17","slug":"china-is-forcing-fashion-to-mute-itself-over-dirty-cottonnew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/china-is-forcing-fashion-to-mute-itself-over-dirty-cottonnew\/","title":{"rendered":"CHINA IS FORCING FASHION TO MUTE ITSELF OVER DIRTY COTTONNEW"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bloomberg<\/a>. 15 October 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Below is an article published by Bloomberg<\/a>. Photo:Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a fashion industry sustainability group called out\u00a0China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims, the idea was to\u00a0nudge\u00a0Beijing toward\u00a0human-rights reforms while cleaning up a troubled corner of the $60 billion global cotton business. Western brands have\u00a0learned the hard way that things don\u2019t work that way in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In the 12 months since the Better Cotton Initiative, whose members range from Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing Co. to Nike Inc. to Walmart Inc., published a statement on allegations of forced labor in the cotton-growing Xinjiang region, several brands have suffered major setbacks in China, one of the world\u2019s biggest producers and consumers of the fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization missed production targets last year and companies including Levi Strauss & Co. and Chinese sneaker maker Anta Sports Products Ltd. have scaled back their involvement. Others have gone quiet, pulling statements of concern about the situation in Xinjiang from their websites. Hennes & Mauritz AB\u2019s revenue in China, once its fourth-largest market, fell 40% in the most recent quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the BCI statement has long vanished from the group\u2019s website, there\u2019s little sign of a truce. Instead, China, which says claims of human-rights violations are unfounded, is escalating its response. In late September it launched a recruitment drive for a sustainability certification program that would undercut the BCI, with the first applications to join due by Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The escalating conflict shows how difficult it can be for brands to satisfy demands from western consumers and human-rights groups for greater sustainability without risking open war with China, which has become more willing to wield its clout to defend its policies. It\u2019s also a potential setback for the broader ESG movement that\u2019s rallying institutional investors around the banner of improved environmental, social and governance targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really terrible if companies start feeling they can\u2019t speak out against atrocities because of a fear of backlash,\u201d said Therese Kieve, stewardship analyst at Sarasin & Partners, which holds shares of Asos Plc and Associated British Foods Plc, owner of the Primark chain. \u201cThen nothing\u2019s going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Geneva-based BCI declined to comment on China for this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comfort, convenience and relatively low cost have made cotton the world\u2019s most widely used textile fiber. More than 26 million tons is plucked from shrubs annually and spun into yarn. That\u2019s enough to provide at least two dozen T-shirts for everyone on the planet.  Prices of the commodity have been rising sharply, hovering near the highest levels in a decade this month, amid surging demand from China and poor prospects for the U.S. harvest now underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s an ugly side to that success. Growing cotton can often require vast amounts of water and pesticides. Labor practices are hard to police in the remote fields where much of it is grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Better Cotton Initiative was created in 2009, pooling industry efforts to clean up the supply chain. The group tries to help farmers transition to greener methods, while making sure cotton remains affordably priced. The organization also says it refuses to operate in regions where forced labor is \u201corchestrated by the government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Area of Concern<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The confrontation that erupted last October followed the U.S. government\u2019s decision to ban some imports from Xinjiang, where it says Chinese authorities are detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in \u201cre-education\u201d camps in what constitutes an ongoing genocide. China has repeatedly denied these claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the BCI didn\u2019t withdraw altogether from China, it said it would focus on other regions of the country. Beijing responded with fierce criticism of western fashion brands, prompting calls for boycotts. Landlords closed some H&M stores in retaliation for an undated statement on its website that expressed concern about reports of forced labor in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of Chinese celebrities ended their contracts with BCI member firms including H&M, Adidas AG and Nike, with former Burberry Group Plc brand ambassador and actress Zhou Dongyu saying the trenchcoat maker had not \u201cclearly and publicly\u201d stated its stance on cotton from Xinjiang.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flap highlighted a quandary for the foreign labels, said Veronica Bates Kassatly, independent analyst of sustainability claims in the global apparel sector and a former World Bank economist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey cannot afford to upset Chinese consumers and they cannot afford to upset Chinese manufacturers, either,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BCI has expanded so quickly \u2014 it now has more than 2,100 members \u2014 and become so prevalent that its production represents almost a quarter of global cotton output. 2.4 million farmers are licensed to sell cotton certified by the organization, which is funded through membership dues and a levy on sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also an incentive to becoming a member, as BCI-certified cotton helps fashion giants burnish their sustainability credentials. New members continue to join \u2014 nearly 190 in the first half. Among them is Boohoo Group Plc, the British online fast-fashion retailer seeking to clean up its own supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few big brands will talk openly about their discussions with the BCI on how to police Xinjiang cotton. Burberry, for example, scrubbed references to the group in its annual report published in June, after citing the organization a year earlier. BCI lists Burberry as a member on its website. The company declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompanies are doing everything they can to avoid these types of public conversations,\u201d Bertille Knuckey, co-head of ESG Research at Sycomore Asset Management. \u201cNow they are just avoiding really engaging on the topic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the BCI published the statement on alleged human-rights violations, some members expressed frustration that it had gone beyond its primary mission of environmental sustainability and strayed into areas where it did not have adequate knowledge or expertise, people familiar with the situation said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levi Strauss\u2019s new chief sustainability officer, Jeff Hogue, who joined last year, decided not to take up a seat on the BCI council even though the retailer, which backed the formation of the program, was due to hold that position until 2022. Levi\u2019s, which remains a member of the BCI, said Hogue is currently focused on the upcoming release of the company\u2019s first sustainability report and ESG disclosure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the height of the boycott crisis, BCI said the decision to suspend licensing would prevent almost 500,000 tons of Xinjiang cotton from entering the global supply chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The provenance of cotton is hard to trace because of the many stages in the production process. It starts with raw cotton produced in remote villages in countries such as China, India or Mozambique. Seeds are extracted, bolls are removed and the fiber is spun into yards. They\u2019re transported to mills that produce and dye the fabric \u2014 often with toxic products and little environmental oversight. The textiles are sold to clothing manufacturers, which ship finished products to stores worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fashion and apparel industry was shaken to its core in 2013 when a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh. The tragedy resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, putting the spotlight on an industry that long pushed profit at the expense of the wellbeing of those at the bottom of the production chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the incident, brands vowed to improve labor standards, including an increase in the number of labels and certifications meant to show that the industry is tackling abusive working practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities from France to the U.S. are carrying out investigations that may shed more light on what is happening in Xinjiang. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several French campaign groups lodged a legal complaint in April against two BCI members: Japan\u2019s Uniqlo and Spain\u2019s Inditex SA, the parent of Zara. Also named were French fashion group SMCP SA, which owns brands like Maje and Sandro, as well as Skechers USA Inc. The complaint accused the four companies of profiting from forced labor of China\u2019s Uyghur minority as well as crimes against humanity. French prosecutors started an investigation in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMCP and Inditex both strongly denied the accusations and said they will fully cooperate with the probe. Inditex said traceability controls are carried out \u201crigorously\u201d on its clothing. Fast Retailing said there\u2019s no forced labor in its supply chain and it intends to cooperate with authorities if contacted. Skechers declined to comment on pending litigation, but said previous supplier audits found no use of forced labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A criminal complaint was filed last month against the C&A fashion chain and other retailers by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, accusing them of \u201cdirectly or indirectly abetting and profiting from alleged forced labor of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang,\u201d and being \u201cinvolved in crimes against humanity.\u201d C&A, a BCI member, says it doesn\u2019t have supplier contracts in the region and doesn\u2019t tolerate forced labor or unauthorized subcontracting in its supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The association uses so-called \u201cmass balance,\u201d  a widely employed volume tracking system, that allows farmers and manufacturers to mix Better Cotton with conventionally grown fabric while benefiting from the label. The system has allowed the BCI to dramatically increase the volume of Better Cotton sold worldwide. But the lack of transparency and full traceability has raised concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDue to the mass balance approach, there is a potential risk that cotton from the Xinjiang region may be included within BCI cotton,\u201d a spokesperson for British apparel chain Next Plc said. To try to avoid that, the company has explicitly banned the use of cotton from the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BCI has said it\u2019s moving toward a better traceability program in the coming months. C&A is calling for changes in the program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is also time to open up the debate about what are the steps needed to increase the traceability of cotton and what are the opportunities that will arise from it,\u201d said Betty Kiess, a spokeswoman. C&A will continue to collaborate with the organization, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incremental progress on environmental goals is better than nothing, some brand owners say. Tendam, the Spanish owner of the Women\u2019secret lingerie label, joined the BCI this summer. The initiative is encouraging growers to adopt \u201cbetter behaviors,\u201d including reduced water usage, said Ignacio Sierra, corporate general manager at Tendam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether global brands embrace China\u2019s own sustainable cotton certification program is an open question. They may need to if they wish to keep selling in that market, and some clothes could even be manufactured solely for the Chinese market based on this label, according to a person familiar with the BCI\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe standards of BCI are too general and may not be suitable for cotton grown in China,\u201d Wang Wenkui, an executive at the China Cotton Industry Alliance, told the Global Times. The Chinese guidelines will set out specific growing practices, including temperature and regulation of pesticides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m quite confident that our cotton growing standards will replace the BCI standards in the future,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg. 15 October 2021 Below is an article published by Bloomberg. Photo:Getty Images. When a fashion industry sustainability group called out\u00a0China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims, the idea was to\u00a0nudge\u00a0Beijing toward\u00a0human-rights reforms while cleaning up a troubled corner of the $60<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":889,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}