Multiple media outlets reported in late June that Amazon was planning to launch a deep-discount website featuring products shipped directly from suspect Chinese suppliers.
According to a report by the website The Information, Amazon could be using a trade loophole used by Chinese sites Temu and Shein to avoid taxes to import products tainted by slavery.
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The initial information was broken Last week, news broke that Amazon is planning to launch a service that will give American buyers the option to buy extremely cheap products directly from China. The website would function similarly to Temu and Shein, which currently operate as mobile phone apps in the US, allowing Americans to quickly purchase thousands of products at prices well below US market prices. Shein specializes in “fast fashion” clothing for young women, with clothes priced as low as $1, while Temu sells a variety of other items, including home goods, art supplies, and more, in addition to clothing.
According to CNBC, Amazon held The company announced the plans at an event for Chinese sellers in late June, suggesting that sellers would get higher profit margins by doing business with Amazon rather than with Chinese sites.
“Amazon aims to ship products directly from China to the US and have them delivered to shoppers within nine to 11 days, according to the presentation,” CNBC reported. “Until now, Amazon sellers in China have relied on the company’s fulfillment service, ‘Fulfillment by Amazon,’ which sends products to US warehouses before shipping them to customers.”
An increasing number of products being sold on Amazon are from Chinese companies whose brands are unknown in the U.S. According to CNBC, “the number of products sold by Chinese sellers on Amazon’s site grew by more than 20% year over year.” [in 2023]Meanwhile, the number of Chinese merchants with sales over $10 million increased by 30 percent.” Walmart and other major American online retailers have seen a similar surge in the number of China-origin products on their sites, but they still ship products to the U.S. before reaching consumers.
According to significant evidence cited by Congress and human rights activists, Tem and Shane are able to offer their products at steep discounts primarily because they rely on Chinese suppliers with ties to slavery to ship directly to American customers using a loophole that allows them to avoid import taxes. U.S. import law requires that packages under $800 be “exempt from import taxes.” Very little. Very little Packages do not require customs duties or import taxes to be paid, and are not subject to the same human rights scrutiny as oversized packages.
This loophole has made it nearly impossible to police Tem and Shein’s products, which often cost as little as $10 a piece. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), enacted in 2022, presumes that all shipments shipped from occupied East Turkestan (China’s “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” or “XUAR”) are tainted with slavery unless the importer certifies that their supply chain is clean. The law states: Very little Because it is a package, most purchases from Temu and Shein escape UFPLA scrutiny.
A page from Temu’s website in New York, June 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
The Chinese Communist Party has laid the foundation for a vast slavery system through its ongoing genocide of the Uighur people in occupied East Turkistan, first by incarcerating millions in concentration camps and then “graduating” them into factory slavery. Chinese websites sell Uighurs in “packages” of 50 to 100, and the government encourages factories to use Uighur slaves. Many of these slaves are sold to factories outside of East Turkistan, and the UFLPA cannot protect American consumers from these shipments.
Amazon is now Very little Loophole, information reportThe media outlet cited anonymous Amazon sources as saying the company plans to ship parcels directly from China in a way that avoids import tariffs. Not verified When asked at the time of writing, he revealed his plans regarding exemptions.
The pervasiveness of Uighur and other slaves in the Chinese economy makes it impossible for U.S. companies to properly vet suppliers, experts wrote in a May report to Congress.
“Beijing currently operates the world’s largest state-sponsored forced labor system, putting more than two million Uighurs and members of other ethnic groups at risk,” Adrian Zenz, a senior research fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, told parliament. “Unlike most forced labor, state-enforced forced labor is carried out through a pervasive, coercive societal context characterized by a lack of civil liberties and a state that generates powerful coercive pressures through local mobilization through extensive grassroots bureaucratic mechanisms.”
“As a result, due diligence efforts based on social and labor audits are not feasible, either in Xinjiang or in other Chinese provinces that host ethnic minority workers transferred from the region,” Zenz concluded. “The only ethical response is divestment.”
Uighur Turks who say they haven’t heard any news from their families or relatives in East Turkestan take part in a protest near the Chinese Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, on May 24, 2022. (Burhan Ozbilisi/The Associated Press)
Congressional investigations have named Shein and Temu as directly involved in the Uighur slave trade. A June 2023 report by the House Select Committee on China warned Americans that there was an “extremely high risk” that Temu and Shein products came from a slavery-tainted supply chain. Shein’s attempt to do an initial public offering (IPO) on the U.S. stock market failed due to fierce congressional opposition, and Temu is facing a lawsuit for allegedly stealing customer information.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin sued the company last week, alleging that Temu is “functionally malware.”
“Tem is not an online marketplace like Amazon or Walmart. It is a data theft business selling products online as a means to an end,” Griffin said. Said In a statement, he said Tem was “led by former Chinese Communist Party officials and poses serious security risks to our country and its people.”
While Shein and Temu may enjoy home court advantage in China, Amazon could offer its Chinese suppliers a safer space to sell their goods as their business practices have drawn backlash and lawsuits in the United States.
Based in Hong Kong South China Morning Post report The company said on Sunday, citing local vendor representatives, that the reaction in China to Amazon’s plans seems “fairly positive.” One supplier told the outlet that working with Amazon, rather than with Chinese companies already facing lawsuits in the US, is a good way to “expand sales channels and reduce risks.”
It’s unclear how long Amazon could use this right, if it so chooses. Very little Loopholes. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) Introduced A bill to close this loophole, the Import Security and Fairness Act, is scheduled to become law in June 2023.
“Every day we wait, millions of packages from Communist China flood into our country, putting American customers at risk and undermining American businesses,” Senator Rubio told Breitbart News, urging the Senate to move forward with the bill.
