US judge rejects Esquel Group’s request to remove Xinjiang unit from ‘entity list’

A US federal judge has refused to lift trade restrictions on a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based textile company Esquel Group, which had been placed on the Commerce Department’s “entity list” for its activities in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

In his ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Reggie B. Walton in Washington found that Esquel, one of the world’s biggest shirt makers, was not likely to succeed in its case against the department because it failed to show that Commerce had acted beyond its legal authority.