China’s Commerce Ministry is investigating Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger parent company PVH, over claims that the clothing giant is unfairly refusing to use cotton sourced from the controversial Xinjiang region.
A release from the ministry on September 24 accused PVH of “violating normal market transaction principles” and “unreasonably boycotting” Xinjiang cotton, the Associated Press reports. If the company ends up being sanctioned, it could be placed on China’s “unreliable entities” list, which would ban it from doing business in the country altogether. In a statement responding to China’s investigation, PVH said that it “maintains strict compliance with all relevant laws and regulations” in all the countries it operates in, adding that it’s been contact with the Commerce Ministry.
PVH’s supply chain guidelines detail how the retailer prohibits all direct and indirect sourcing from the Xinjiang province. The U.S. also banned all imports from Xinjiang in 2022, over allegations of forced labor of religious and ethnic minorities. A 2018 report from the U.S. State Department estimated that as many as two million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other Muslim groups are being held in “prison-like conditions” at detention camps in the province.