Forced-Labor Aluminum Foiled, Daily Brief July 11, 2024

Today we’ve got good news, bad news, and some hope for progress – and it’s all about aluminum.

Regular readers may recall our story from earlier this year, when we looked at the connection between aluminum in cars and forced labor in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Aluminum is a key element in the manufacture of cars. The metal and its alloys are used in dozens of automotive parts, from engine blocks and vehicle frames to wheels and components of electric batteries. These parts are found in cars made in China, and they’re also exported to carmakers globally.

One key source of this aluminum in China is Xinjiang, where its production has grown massively in recent years. 

Aluminum producers in Xinjiang, like many industries in the region, participate in Chinese government-backed forced labor programs. That’s the system of forced labor that coerces Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims into jobs. It’s just one disturbing part of the Chinese government’s extensive repression in Xinjiang, which includes crimes against humanity.

But it is a part of the abuses in Xinjiang that other countries can surely do something about. Governments overseeing large car markets around the world have leverage here.

The good news is, this week, the United States government took a welcome step in this direction. The US has added aluminum to its list of priority sectors for the enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The law aims to block items made in Xinjiang with state-imposed forced labor from entering the US market. 

The decision will likely have a significant impact on how car companies source their parts for cars they sell in the massive US market. Because they need to assume anything aluminum coming from Xinjiang could be tainted by forced labor, they’re going to have to rethink where they get their parts from. 

The bad news is, the other major consumer market in the world – the European Union – has been slower to address forced labor in Xinjiang. The EU has put tariffs on electric cars, but that has nothing to do with human rights; it’s an economic security measure.

However, we could see change for the better soon. The EU is one step away from adopting the Forced Labor Regulation (FLR), a law that aims to prevent EU consumers from buying goods produced with forced labor anywhere in the world. 

Before it’s implemented, the European Commission will publish an online database on specific geographic areas and sectors where forced labor is a risk, including regions where state authorities impose forced labor. It’s essential they put Xinjiang and the aluminum sector on that list, along with more than 17 industries associated with state-imposed forced labor there.

Hopefully, with so much pressure from major consumer markets around the world and automakers required to source their products more responsibly, the Chinese government will feel the pinch and roll back its forced labor program in Xinjiang. That’s the goal.