Top House Republicans demanded information Thursday on the partnership between Ford Motor Company and the Chinese battery maker CATL, citing new information about the licensing agreement that they said raised concerns over the battery maker’s ties to forced labor.
In the letter to Ford, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) demanded the automaker provide more information about the partnership, which includes a $3.5 billion factory in Michigan that has also come under criticism.
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In particular, the lawmakers cited concerns over what they said was new evidence that CATL had not publicly divested its share of the Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Company, which has been linked to forced labor, before it inked its deal with Ford that was announced in March.
BREAKING: Chairman @RepGallagher and @RepJasonSmith of @WaysandMeansGOP seek answers on @Ford’s partnership with Chinese Communist Party-aligned battery company @catl_official.
In the letter, the Chairmen reveal NEW information about the licensing agreement, CATL’s ties to… pic.twitter.com/9d3tnDDH4y
— The Select Committee on the CCP (@committeeonccp) July 21, 2023
The circumstances of the sale raise “serious questions about whether CATL is attempting to obscure links to forced labor,” the lawmakers said in a statement.
They also warned Ford that, should it continue to rely on China for its inputs to produce EV batteries, “the company will be exposing itself and U.S. taxpayers to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party and its politics.”
Ford said earlier this year that it would open the plant in Marshall, Michigan, which will employ roughly 2,500 employees who will work to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries.
But some Republicans have sharply criticized the deal. Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) preemptively rejected the planned battery plant from being built in the state earlier this year, and the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), also demanded an investigation into the plant earlier this year.
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In a letter to the Energy Department, the Treasury Department, and the Transportation Department, Rubio argued that the FORD-CATL venture should not receive any federal funding, including eligibility for any tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
