US to seize all Xinjiang tomato, cotton imports by AFP Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Jan 13, 2021 The United States will seize all imports of tomato and cotton products from China's Xinjiang region due to the use of forced labor, the Customs and Border protection agency announced Wednesday. CBP issued a "withhold release order" on those imports "based on information that reasonably indicates the use of detainee or prison labor and situations of forced labor," it said. It was the latest in a series of withhold release orders issued on products originating in China's huge far-west region, where the government has forced more than one million ethnic Uighur Muslims and other minorities into prison camps, according to human rights groups. Those camps are used to source labor for factories in the region, the rights groups say. The United States "will not tolerate forced labor of any kind in US supply chains," said Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the CBP. "We will continue to protect the American people and investigate credible allegations of forced labor, we will prevent goods made by forced labor from entering our country, and we demand the Chinese close their camps and stop their human rights violations," he said in a statement. Earlier import seizure orders included cotton and cotton products and tomato products from specific companies operating in Xinjiang.
Campaigners hail Mexican ban on genetically modified corn Mexico City (AFP) Jan 7, 2021 Environmental campaigners have welcomed a Mexican ban on growing genetically modified maize and the phasing out of a controversial weedkiller - a step that has met opposition in the private sector. Imports of genetically modified maize will also be gradually prohibited over the next three years, along with the use of glyphosate, an herbicide described by the World Health Organization as "probably carcinogenic." Leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government said the decree, which to ... read more
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