House Republicans Ask CBP to Defend UFLPA Screening on Critical Minerals
Two House Republicans, including the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the CBP commissioner to ask him to explain how CBP screens products containing Chinese critical minerals, and to detail "the methodologies used to gather intelligence about forced labor in critical mineral supply chains and whether you believe these methodologies are sufficient?"
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Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, also asked, "Do you believe there is a substantial risk that forced labor has or will be used in critical mineral products that originate in China including electric vehicle batteries and dual-use products? What resources does the CBP need from Congress to effectively accomplish its mission of ensuring that products made using forced labor do not reach American shores?"
The letter, sent Sept. 28 and shared by McCaul's office with International Trade Today, cited stories from The New York Times and Bloomberg Law that link critical minerals to forced labor in Xinjiang.
"America imports a large quantity of critical minerals from China, which has a stranglehold over the global trade, especially of processed critical minerals and rare earths and leaves America reliant on Chinese exports. This is in no small part due to the CCP’s unfair trade practices, minimal concern for environmental standards, huge state financial backing for Chinese critical mineral firms, and the use of forced labor," they wrote.
"Although Xinjiang-originated polysilicon and cotton have received the most attention, recent reports combined with the extreme difficulty in tracing the supply chain for critical minerals indicate an extremely high risk that imports of these products could violate the [Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention] Act."