By James Davey and Helen Reid
LONDON (Reuters) -A Shein representative declined to provide a direct answer when asked by a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday whether the online fast-fashion retailer uses cotton from China, a key issue for potential investors concerned about its supply chain.
It was the first opportunity for British lawmakers to publicly question the company working towards a London initial public offering, as part of a hearing focused on labour rights in global supply chains which online retailer Temu also participated in.
Singapore-headquartered Shein, which was founded in China in 2012, is awaiting regulatory approvals for the IPO from both Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority and China’s securities regulator.
Shein’s general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Yinan Zhu, said: “The suppliers we work with, they are based in China, in Turkey and Brazil, and obviously many of them are in China.”
She asked the committee for permission to write to them about further questions, when pressed further on whether the company sources cotton from China.
Asked about the IPO, Zhu said she was not able to comment.
Growing visibly exasperated, the chair of the committee Liam Byrne said: “You can’t tell us anything about listing, you can’t tell us anything about cotton in Shein products, and you can’t tell us much, in fact.”
The U.S. and NGOs have long accused China of human rights abuses in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they say Uyghurs are forced to work producing cotton and other goods.
Shein has previously said it requires contract manufacturers to only source cotton from approved regions, and that it has a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour.
But publicly distancing itself from Xinjiang cotton is risky, as clothing retailers that have done so in the past faced criticism and boycotts from Chinese consumers, and pushback from Chinese authorities.
Most recently, Japan’s Uniqlo was slammed on Chinese social media after a November BBC interview in which Chief Executive Tadashi Yanai said the retailer is not using cotton from the region.
In contrast with Zhu, Temu’s senior legal counsel Stephen Heary said the online retailer, part of Chinese ecommerce giant PDD Holdings, does not permit sellers from the Xinjiang region to sell on its platform.
(Reporting by James Davey, Helen Reid, and Muvija M; editing by William James, Alexandra Hudson)
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