Lawmakers Call on SEC to Suspend Shein Group IPO over Forced Labor Concerns

match Arriana McLymore

NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) – A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers has called on the U.S. stock market watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to suspend China’s Shein Group’s IPO process to verify that it does not use forced labor, shows a letter seen by Reuters.

These twenty elected officials want the SEC to order the Chinese low-cost ready-to-wear giant to conduct an independent audit to verify that “the company does not use forced Uyghur labor” and that this is a condition for being listed in the United States, is it written in the document.

Sources have said in the past that the rapidly growing Shein is aiming to go public this year in the United States.

China is accused by NGOs and several governments of forcing the Muslim Uighur minority into forced labor in internment camps in the Xinjiang region. Beijing denies such actions.

Bloomberg reported last year that clothing sold by Shein contained cotton sourced from Xinjiang.

A spokesperson for the Chinese group said it had a “zero tolerance” policy on forced labor and that its suppliers were bound by “a code of conduct” aligned with international standards of law. work.

(Report Arriana McLymore, with Katherine Masters; French version Jean Terzian)