Vietnamese garment exporters are deeply perturbed over the scrutiny and censure of their exports by the United States which has banned all textiles produced from China’s Xinjiang province.
They do import cotton from China but make sure that it is not from China. But more Chinese labels on the cotton result in scrutiny of the highest level of their products. Exporters are making all efforts to ensure that they comply with a U.S. ban on imported products. Their problem is that they import cotton from other provinces of China but they are not sure if any trace of Xinjiang cotton is also shipped. Vietnamese textile products and solar panels come under closer scrutiny in Washington.
Katherine Tai, the representative of the U.S. Trade during her visit to Vietnam this week, met executives and other people familiar with the issue and conceded that some importers in Vietnam may unwittingly import some raw materials, sometimes from Xinjiang but the US ban stays anyway. The importers might as well find it difficult to prove that they were not sourcing materials from Xinjiang province.
