- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2024-05-20T19:16:00
A U.S. Senate report found three European automakers—Volkswagen, BMW, and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)—sold cars in the United States with parts sourced from a supplier suspected of using forced labor from China’s Xinjiang region.
The report, released Monday, revealed major oversight gaps by the three automakers regarding forced labor in their supply chains. Its findings included “two companies that shipped cars or parts to the United States this year that were made with parts from a banned Chinese supplier,” according to a press release from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and author of the report.
“Automakers are sticking their heads in the sand and then swearing they can’t find any forced labor in their supply chains,” Wyden said in the release. “… I’m calling on Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 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.”
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security added three China-based entities across the seafood, aluminum, and footwear industries to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
The Department of Homeland Security announced its largest batch of additions to the list of companies blocked under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the form of a sweep of the Chinese textile industry.
It’s been nearly two years since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act took effect, and as enforcement statistics and recent reports demonstrate, many businesses are still not adequately vetting their supply chains.
The U.S. Department of Commerce unveiled a diagnostic supply chain risk assessment tool, which will “utilize a comprehensive set of indicators to assess structural supply chain risk across the U.S. economy,” the agency said.
Companies will need to tighten up how they monitor their supply chains after a recent U.K. ruling determined that corporates could be open to money laundering charges if they fail to act in cases where they believe there is a risk of forced labor.
Rooting out potential child or forced labor violations in your company’s supply chain can have benefits beyond protecting reputation and being ethically sound. The process can also help your firm comply with pending child labor laws in other jurisdictions.
