[A] group of human rights, labor and investor organizations, filed a formal petition with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), urging it to issue a regional withhold release order (WRO) on all cotton-made goods linked to the Xinjiang region of China based on evidence of widespread forced labor... Credible reports and widespread media coverage have thoroughly documented that global garment supply chains are tainted by forced labor and systematic human rights abuses against the ethnic Muslim populations in China’s Xinjiang region. Abuses include sterilization, violence, forced labor and imprisonmentof Uyghur and Turkmenic peoples... [L]ast month, over 200 human and labor rights and investor organizations launched a campaign, End Uyghur Forced Labor, calling on global corporations to divest from the region. 

... Earlier this summer, CBP issued four WROs against certain products from the Xinjiang region, but nothing sufficiently sweeping to dissuade the government of China from continuing its persecution of the Uyghur people, or to discourage major garment brands from importing cotton goods linked to forced labor and selling them to US consumers. Industry groups have repeatedly requested clear guidance from the US government and a regional WRO would provide it.