Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has joined a coalition of 15 other state attorneys general in sending a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler regarding business practices reported by the China-founded, fast-fashion retailer SHEIN.
TN AG Skrmetti joined 15 other state attorneys general in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding SHEIN’s business practices – which include reports of forced labor. Read more: https://t.co/mfl8q0AxNc pic.twitter.com/7LwoYjoFkj
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) August 30, 2023
SHEIN was founded in Nanjing, China in 2008 has become the world’s largest fashion retailer with an estimated value of $64 billion. The company’s mobile app is currently the fourth most downloaded app in the United States. In addition, the company is one of TikTok’s largest advertisers and pays thousands of social media “influencers” to market its wares to consumers via videos on the platform.
In the letter dated August 24, the group of attorneys general urged the SEC to require any foreign-owned company to certify that it is compliant with Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930 via a “truly independent process.”
The Tariff Act of 1930 prohibits the import of any product manufactured wholly or in part by forced labor as a condition of being listed on a U.S. based securities exchange
SHEIN, according to the coalition of attorneys general, has been “credibly accused” of exploiting forced labor and violating the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). In addition, the group points out that testing done by Bloomberg News last year found “significant scientific evidence that cotton produced in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region was present in clothing sold by the company.”
“While the advertising puts a bright face on the company, there is a dark side to its rapid growth,” the attorneys general wrote. “Various government, watchdog, and media reports have alleged that its rise has been “made possible by forced labor, human rights violations, stealing other designers’ work and the peddling of clothing made with potentially hazardous materials.”
“American exchanges should have a zero-tolerance policy for foreign companies that seek access to our markets but refuse to follow our laws, especially when the implicated laws are meant to prevent serious human rights abuses,” the attorneys general concluded. “We believe in upholding the rule of law and protecting our economy. Lip service is not enough; in this case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must ‘trust, but verify’ that every such company is complying before it receives the privilege of being listed on an American securities exchange.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “SHEIN Store” by Dick Thomas Johnson. CC BY 2.0.
Surely a Chinese owned operation would not violate these laws. Wink. Wink.
Where is the outcry to ban TikTok? It died a sudden death it seems.