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From Cobalt to Cars: How China Exploits Child and Forced Labor in the Congo

2023-11-14T10:00:00
Tuesday, November 14, 2023 - 10:00am
215 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Child and forced labor taint the supply chain of cobalt, a metal that is a critical component in the lithium-ion batteries and other products important for modern technologies, including electric vehicles. Fully four-fifths of the world’s cobalt is buried under the ground in the Democratic Republic of the C(link is external)ongo (“DRC”) and the mining and refining of the mineral is dominated by Chinese companies. 80% of the DRC’s cobalt output is owned by Chinese companies, refined in China, and then sold to battery makers around the world.

Mining of cobalt is linked to grave human rights abuses, including the exposure of miners to unsafe worksites and reliance on child and forced Congolese labor, as well as environmental degradation. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates(link is external) that at least 25,000 children are working in cobalt mines in the DRC.

This hearing will continue the CECC’s efforts to expose forced labor and other abuses in the supply chains that run through China and ensure that goods and products made with such labor do not enter U.S. markets. Witnesses will provide testimony about the malign presence of Chinese companies in cobalt supply chains, the extent of child and forced labor in those supply chains originating in the DRC, the PRC’s contribution to the environmental degradation of the region, and recommendations for U.S. action.

The hearing can be viewed on the CECC’s YouTube Channel(link is external)

Hearing transcript(link is external)

Opening Statements

Representative Christopher Smith, Chair

[Statement]

Senator Jeff Merkley, Cochair

[Statement]

Represenative James P. McGovern, Commissioner

[Statement]

Witnesses

Eric Schultz, Former U.S. Ambassador to Zambia

[Testimony]

Milos Ivkovic, International Arbitrator; Adjunct Professor, Washington University School of Law

[Testimony]

Joseph Mulala Nguramo, Nonresident Fellow, Atlantic Council’s Freedom and Prosperity Center and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

[Testimony]

Stavros N. Niarchos, Freelance journalist whose work on conflict and minerals in Africa has been published by the New Yorker

[Testimony]