BEIJING: The China Cotton Association (CCA), along with other industry organizations, officially launched the Cotton China Sustainable Development Program on Thursday, aiming to build a homegrown independent sustainable standard and certification system to counter the West’s dominance that has posed serious threat on China’s cotton industry.
The move marks a milestone in overhauling the global cotton rule-making system, which is currently monopolized by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a West-led industry body that has apparently been manipulated by some anti-China forces in their slandering against China and its policies in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
BCI suspended cotton licenses for Xinjiang companies several months ago, which led to a sharp plunge in the region’s cotton exports after boycotts by several global fashion brands.
Industry insiders said that the establishment of the new program will make China – the world’s largest cotton consumer market – hold a significant saying in international pricing and standard-setting, and more importantly, lend it a tool to reasonably defend itself and protect its legitimate interests against Western political crackdowns.
The program is designed to promote the high-quality and sustainable development of China’s cotton industry based on the core concept of “environmental friendly, excellent quality, respect for labor and fully traceable.” It will facilitate the consumption of homegrown cotton and expand the global market share of Chinese cotton.
Preparation for the program had begun for a while before it was launched on Thursday at the 2021 China International Cotton Conference in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province.
So far, it has finished formulating standards for the management of cotton production and signed contracts with six Chinese cotton producers. Looking ahead, it will further cooperate with the textile supply chain and brands to build a sustainable cotton industrial chain from production, textile and clothes manufacturing, to brand sales.
Gao Fang, chairman of the CCA, said at the opening ceremony that under the program, the CCA will also commence evaluation work on cotton producers, and push forward the mutual recognition between Chinese standards and international standards. Also, a traceable system will be set up to supervise the whole supply chain.
“We had already begun the work, but the BCI’s [license suspension in April] further raised the urgency and sped up the process. All industry bodies have been uniting to help promote Chinese cotton, to make us less constrained by [other nations],” Wang Jiandong, vice chairman and secretary general of the CCA, told the Global Times on the sideline of the conference on Thursday.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
