Beijing Sanctions 2 US Labs That Can Prove Where Cotton Grew
U.S. importers must prove their goods are free of Xinjiang forced labor, and the two sanctioned firms sell forensic testing that makes that proof possible.
TL;DR
- Cotton fibers contain elemental traces indicating their origin, which survive processing.
- Two U.S. companies, Applied DNA Sciences and Stratum Reservoir, analyze these traces.
- China banned all entities from working with these two U.S. companies.
- The ban was enacted five days after the U.S. broadened its forced labor import ban.
- The U.S. ban targeted 43 additional Chinese companies.
- The two U.S. companies were among six U.S. entities placed on China's countermeasures list.
- These entities were sanctioned for assisting U.S. sanctions related to Xinjiang.