Report: 15% of Tested Apparel Had Xinjiang Cotton
After getting data on 86 garments tested by CBP between December 2022 and May 2023, Reuters determined that 13 of the items, or 15% of the total, showed they contained cotton grown in Xinjiang, and therefore are banned from entry to the U.S.
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Eighty-six garments is obviously a small fraction of the imports over that time; CBP didn't tell Reuters how it selected these garments for isotopic testing. But Eric Choy, the executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Division, told Reuters in June that "isotopic testing is not yet a 'routine process'" at CBP. "He added that officials at individual U.S. ports can request testing if they receive allegations about specific shipments or suspect the goods have links to Xinjiang," Reuters reported.
CBP has said that a test on a finished garment that finds no Xinjiang cotton is enough to show a Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention detention was incorrect (see 2302240050), but that tests from processors in the supply chain are not adequate, because they can't trust that the clean cotton is what was used in the factory (see 2304190039).