Silicon Made With Forced Labor in About $156M in Imports Over Last 2.5 Years, CBP Says
A withhold release order on silicon produced by Hoshine Silicon Industry Co., Ltd., a company located in China's Xinjiang province, and its subsidiaries, was based on credible reports that workers were subject to intimidation and threats, and that they had their movements restricted, the acting CBP commissioner said during a press conference June 24. The material produced by Hoshine is a primary input in solar panels.
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The administration did not say what they relied on in conducting the investigation in this case, but said that generally, they rely on investigative reporting, studies by non-governmental organizations, government reports and first-hand accounts.
There was a detailed NGO report that mapped Hoshine's links to 15 companies in the solar panel industry, both inside and outside of China.
Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate, said at the press conference that while the agency is still examining data, their estimate is that over the last two and a half years, about $6 million worth of materials directly from Hoshine was imported into the U.S., and more than $150 million in downstream products containing Hoshine materials were imported during that same period. The forced labor law bars admission to any product made in whole, or in part, with forced labor.
She also said CBP knows there are more products made with Hoshine inputs than they have identified so far, and they are continuing to review the connections to the company to determine what CBP needs to target at the ports.
She could not estimate what proportion of imported solar panels could be blocked from import as a result of the WRO, but said, "Our initial assessment is that there has been some movement away from this particular manufacturer. The number of importations coming in connected to Hoshine seems to have declined somewhat in the last year."
One of the major Chinese solar panel manufacturers, JinkoSolar, said it has already taken steps to ensure that its products exported to the U.S. would not have a production nexus to Xinjiang, the NGO report said. But, the same report said that in its SEC filings, JinkoSolar said, "some products it sells into the U.S. could contain material from Xinjiang, adding that it ‘may’ reconfigure its supply chains if Washington enacts tight trade restrictions on the region."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who led the press conference, said that WROs have practical consequences for producers and importers. He said that nearly $275 million dollars worth of goods had been detained because of WROs and another roughly $125 million of goods bound for the U.S. did not enter because of the deterrence of the WROs. He said there were more than 1,200 shipments either detained or deterred.
A reporter at the press conference asked how the action could affect the administration's goal to transition away from fossil fuels in the energy sector, since Xinjiang produces about 45% of the world's polysilicon. Mayorkas replied, "Our environmental goals will not be achieved on the backs of human beings in a forced labor environment."
CBP will continue to investigate the industry, and will expand the WRO to other manufacturing companies if facts support it, the agency said.
The AFL-CIO, which represented workers at a polysilicon plant in New York that closed after fighting dumped imports from China for years, issued a statement after the announcement that said, "The transition to a low carbon economy can only happen by upholding strong, enforceable worker rights protections."