Crackdown on super cheap fashion imports under review in France

A bill that aims to crackdown on cheap fast-fashion imports from China by imposing an environmental tax and preventing them from advertising has reached the French parliament.

The bill, proposed by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s Horizons party, targets ‘ultra-fast fashion’ brands such as Shein, which offer a wide range of clothing for extremely low prices.

Singapore-based online retailer Shein sells t-shirts for €1.50, coats for €9.99 and dresses from €15, all made in Guangzhou, China. It has become the third largest clothing retailer in France despite having no shops.

‘Massive amounts of pollution’

Shein has gained notoriety in recent years due to its low prices, poor environmental standards and reports of sweat-shop-like conditions in its factories.

An investigation by Time Magazinein January 2023 found it produced 6.3m tonnes of CO2 in the previous year, as much as around one million people.

Environmental charity Amis de la Terre - the French wing of Friends of the Earth - seized upon this data to assert in June 2023 that Shein, with its 3.3 billion articles of clothing sold in France in 2022, was responsible for 22% of CO2 emissions generated by French teenagers that year.

“When you buy things from websites like that you know what you are doing - you know you’re generating massive amounts of pollution,” Anne-Cécile Violland, who proposed the bill, told France 2.

“These products are sent directly to consumers on planes, and we can look even further if we take the issue of wastewater management into account.”

The bill has found support from the French textile industry, which cannot compete with the prices proposed by China-based manufacturers.

“They don’t create jobs, they destroy them,” Pierre Talamon, the president of the French national clothing federation FNH told FranceInfo.

“They rely on commercial marketing and overproduction to convince people to buy clothes only to wear them seven or eight times before throwing them out,” he said.

A change in law is also backed by the French federation of women’s wear and the French union of textile industries, whose president, Olivier Ducatillion, told FranceInfo he welcomed “any initiative that aims to fight the unfair competition from Shein, Temu and others”.

Read more: Three little-known French websites to sell unwanted old clothes

No more adverts and up to €10 more per item

The bill proposed by Horizons, which is part of President Macron’s parliamentary majority, references the 2021 Climat et Résilience law that aims for a 40% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 along with banning adverts for fossil fuels.

The new bill seeks to ban adverts for imported clothing along the same lines, adding a 50% surcharge of the purchase price of each item up to a maximum €10.

“This method is also used in other industries, including for cars,” states the bill. “This is a means to ensure that production models change just as consumer behaviour needs to change.”

In response to the proposed new law, Shein told AFP that it follows “the best international practices in sustainable development and social engagement” and that it “shares the concern of legislators in promoting responsible management of the supply chain and environmental protection.”

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