Swiss textile machinery firms Rieter and Uster are being targeted for their reliance on China amid allegations of forced labor involving Uyghur and other minorities in the garment supply chain.
As per reports by the Swiss Info, it’s difficult to know how many Swiss textile machines wind up in Xinjiang. As per customs data, in 2019, Xinjiang imported $6.4 million (CHF6 million) worth of machines of all sorts from Switzerland making it the 37th-largest exporter of machinery to the region. Customs data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) shows that Xinjiang imports most of its machinery from three countries: Germany ($26.8 million), Japan ($23.4 million) and Italy ($7.4 million).
Switzerland, however, is a major exporter of knitting machine accessories such as spindles, dobbies, and automatic stop motions used in big spinning, weaving or knitting machines. Over the last three years, Switzerland exported knitting machine accessories to the autonomous region worth around $2 million per year.
