Senate report finds parts made with China's forced labour in cars by BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and VW

Automakers imported parts from Chinese company using forced labor, prompting Senate inquiry and calls for stricter enforcement.

BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Volkswagen have bought parts made by a Chinese company sanctioned under a 2021 law for using forced labour, a Senate inquiry found, prompting lawmakers to call for stricter enforcement.

The automakers responded to the Senate report, released on May 20, by saying they have taken action to bring their cars into compliance with the law.

The investigation, carried out by the Senate Finance Committee over the past two years, discovered that BMW imported to the U.S. at least 8,000 MINI vehicles containing parts produced by JWD after the Chinese supplier was sanctioned in December for its links to China's labour programme in the far western region of Xinjiang.

The Senate report said that Jaguar Land Rover imported replacement parts that included components made by JWD, even after the automaker was informed of the presence of the problematic product in its supply chain. Volkswagen, however, disclosed to the U.S. border authorities that a shipment of its vehicles contained parts made by JWD, according to the report.

The components were sourced via two contractors, California-based Bourns Inc. and Michigan-based Lear Corp., the latter of which is a direct supplier for BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, according to the report.

“Automakers are sticking their heads in the sand and then swearing they cannot find any forced labor in their supply chains,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, who chairs the committee. “Automakers' self-policing is clearly not doing the job.”

Jaguar Land Rover said in a statement that the subcomponent mentioned in the report “was used in a prior generation of technology and is not in current JLR vehicles for sale.” The company also said that once it was notified that the Chinese manufacturer was on the sanctions list, it immediately stopped shipment of the affected parts and all existing inventory containing the component was “quarantined for destruction.”