Some Rei Customers Urge Boycott Products Made In China Pose Serious ‘Human Rights’ Dilemma

For years, David Stone bought most of his outdoor equipment and apparel at Recreational Equipment Inc.

But last fall, the 47-year-old Seattle accountant stopped shopping there because the cooperative’s racks were filling up with too many REI products made in China, a country he believes has an atrocious human rights record.

“It was a personal conscious thing,” Stone said. “We (the United States) have passed most-favored-nation trading status for China for years. But if anything, China has become more resistant to discuss human rights.”

Stone, however, didn’t stop there. Late last month, he joined a small but growing group of member/consumers at the Seattle-based outdoor retail cooperative who want a boycott of Chinese imports at REI.

During the past several weeks, the group has circulated a petition committing those who sign it to stop buying REI goods labeled “Made in China” and calling for an immediate halt to the company’s sale and manufacture of Chinese products.

The group’s efforts, initiated with the help of the Tibetan Rights Campaign of Seattle, follow a similar campaign last summer among members of the 40,000-member Puget Consumer Cooperative which led to a boycott of all Chinese imports at the chain of seven health-food grocery outlets.

The PCC boycott removed about $100,000 worth of Chinese tea, spices, nuts and seeds off the shelves.

The stakes are much higher at REI, which imports about one in every five apparel products from two factories in South China. Last year, the decades-old retailer imported $10 million worth of Chinese-made goods for its nationwide chain of 46 stores and 1.4 million members.

Under REI’s bylaws, a group of at least 15 members can petition the board to put the question to a vote by the entire membership. But the REI board can still turn down such a ballot measure.

The human rights activists said they have not yet decided whether to seek a chainwide vote.

The campaign at REI comes at a time when bottom-up pressure from shoppers is prompting a number of small businesses and organizations nationwide to reconsider their China buying strategies.

About 100 civic groups, churches, labor groups and retailers have pledged to boycott China, said Chimie Yudon Yuthok of the Tibetan Rights Campaign.

Add to that the consumer and union-driven U.S. pressure on Third World countries to improve their labor standards after last year’s Congressional hearings on child labor in Asian and Central America, and importers of Chinese-made products have a new headache, said Eden Woon, head of the Washington State China Relations Council.

Woon said Northwest retailers, who have always made sure they do business with Chinese factories that meet ethical and labor standards, used to worry only about the annual renewal of most-favored-nation trading status for China.

“But now, there is a new pressure formed by a coalition of labor and human rights activists,” he said.

REI’s board of directors has defended its buying policies, saying Chinese leaders wouldn’t respond to a boycott, while severing manufacturing links with the mainland would only put the cooperative at a competitive disadvantage. In addition, board members believe economic engagement is better for China’s political development than isolation.

“As consumer reactions rise and fall, I would still maintain that being engaged is the best approach to dealing with China,” said Wally Smith, REI’s president and chief executive who acknowledged China has human rights problems in Tibet.