The head of the online platform, which has come in for scrutiny over its environmental footprint and allegations of human rights violations, also insisted that the company does not use forced labour.
“We’re not focusing on customs policy,“ Tang said about the new US import levies, speaking during a visit to France this week.
This time, however, China is directly in Washington’s crosshairs, with 20-percent additional tariffs levied on products imported from the country.
Shein -- a firm founded in China but now headquartered in Singapore -- and Temu have for years surfed on that practice to send tens of billions of dollars worth of product into the US from their network of Chinese factories.
‘No forced labour’
“The policy is zero tolerance” on forced labour, Tang told AFP. “We don’t tolerate it at all, no questions asked.”
And once deals are in place, “we have international renowned auditors come into the factories with unannounced visits,“ Tang said.
“In manufacturing, 75 hours a week was typical for most workers,“ Hachfeld said, with “one and a half free days per month”.
Any company with operations in Xinjiang should set up human rights checks, the campaign group has argued.
“Conversely, if the company is confident it has eliminated such risks, it should publicly disclose how this has been verified”.
Many investors expect Shein to float on a major global stock market sometime this year, with London seen as the most likely venue.
“We wanted to embrace the universal mechanism for accountability and transparency, to have transparency as a requirement, not optionality,“ he told AFP, hoping to stoke “public trust, which is crucial for our long-term growth”.
Tang said that the company has since responded to MPs’ questions.
“We have been meeting different companies in Paris and other cities in France and talking to the technology leaders” in the sector, Tang said -- without naming the prospective partners.
Friends of the Earth calculated in 2023 that Shein’s operations -- which it said add around 7,200 new items for sale per day on average -- emit “between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide” every 24 hours.
The European Union and individual countries including France are already weighing regulations to limit waste from fast-fashion giants.
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