U.S. Department of Labor lifts ban on purchasing Uzbek cotton

Release time:

2019-04-04

According to Uzbekistan News Network on April 2, citing news from the Uzbek Embassy in the United States, the U.S. Department of Labor recently made a final ruling to remove Uzbek cotton from the list of prohibited state purchases. After that, U.S. state agencies can purchase Uzbek cotton at will, and Uzbek suppliers are no longer required to produce documents proving that there is no child labor and forced labor in the production of goods.

Previously, the International Cotton Movement League called for a boycott of Uzbek cotton and textiles due to the use of child labor and forced labor in the cotton picking process in Uzbekistan, which received widespread response from more than 310 large international companies. The U.S. government has also included the above products in the sanctions since 2010. List, causing Uzbekistan's cotton and textile exports to Western countries in the United States to be blocked.

In February this year, Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Women's Federation of Uzbekistan, Nalbayeva, led a government delegation to Washington, USA to attend the annual meeting of the International Cotton Movement Federation, and met with Alice Wells, Deputy First Assistant Secretary of State of the United States Department of State, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Kozak and other senior government officials to announce the efforts and improvements made by the Uzbek government in the field of prohibition of child labor and forced labor, it is hoped that the initiative to call on major US clothing companies and sales enterprises to boycott Uzbekistan's cotton and textiles can be canceled. However, Uzbekistan has not achieved the expected results. Although the International Cotton Movement Union positively evaluates the Uzbek government's determination to fully fulfill its commitment to protect human rights, and points out that Uzbekistan has made significant improvements in eliminating systemic forced labor, it still maintains the boycott initiative on Uzbek cotton and textiles. At the same time, it also gives a "road map" for the implementation of the boycott, which will be reconsidered in due course depending on the reform of Uzbekistan's economic and social fields.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor said that by removing Uzbek cotton from the above-mentioned ban list, U.S. clothing companies and sales companies will no longer have to worry about damaging their business reputation in contact with Uzbek suppliers, which provides an opportunity for Uzbek cotton and textiles to enter the U.S. market.

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