Banned Chinese supplier with forced labour ties used to import cars to US by BMW, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen: Senate report
- A US congressional probe found BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen used components from a Chinese supplier banned in the US over alleged forced labour ties
- Congress in 2021 passed the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act law to strengthen enforcement of laws to prevent the import of goods from China’s Xinjiang region
A US congressional investigation released on Monday found that carmakers BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen had used components from a Chinese supplier banned in the United States over alleged forced labour ties.
The report by the Senate Finance Committee said BMW had produced and imported vehicles with parts “presumptively made with forced labour,” while Jaguar Land Rover imported parts with the same issues.
VW made vehicles for the US market with such components too, and has “ongoing business ties” to manufacturing in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, the report said.
Beijing has been accused of incarcerating over one million Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in a network of detention facilities in Xinjiang.
In the United States, the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) bans the import of all goods from Xinjiang unless companies offer verifiable proof that production did not involve forced labour.
“Automakers’ self-policing is clearly not doing the job,” said the Senate Finance Committee’s Democratic chairman Ron Wyden at the end of the two-year probe.
