US Senate report: car makers sourced parts from sanctioned China firm
‘Automakers are sticking their heads in the sand and then swearing they can’t find any forced labor in their supply chains,’ US Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden taunted, as he released a report accusing BMW, Jaguar Land Rover (‘JLR’) and Volkswagen (‘VW’) of using parts made by a Chinese supplier sanctioned by the US in 2023.
‘Somehow, the Finance Committee’s oversight staff uncovered what multi-billion-dollar companies apparently could not: that BMW imported cars, Jaguar Land Rover imported parts, and VW AG manufactured cars that all included components made by a supplier banned for using Uyghur forced labor,’ Wyden said in a statement released with the report, 20 May.
‘Automakers’ self-policing is clearly not doing the job. I’m calling on Customs and Border Protection to take a number of specific steps to supercharge enforcement and crack down on companies that fuel the shameful use of forced labor in China,’ he said.
The December 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (‘UFLPA’) prohibits import of any goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in Xinjiang, including goods made anywhere in the world, if any of their inputs originated or passed through Xinjiang.
According to the Wyden report, titled ‘Insufficient Diligence: Car Makers Complicit with CCP Forced Labor,’ the automakers sourced components from Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group Co., Ltd. (JWD), a company added to the UFLPA Entity List in December 2023.
