Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) chairs a congressional hearing on July 14, 2022 exposing the Chinese Communist Party's egregious exploitation of children in Africa—especially the labor trafficking of up to 40,000 children in the Democratic Republic of Congo—to mine cobalt, lithium and various rare earth minerals. Smith's new legislation—HR 4443—is drawn in part from insightful testimony from expert witnesses from his hearing.

            Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, today introduced new legislation (HR 4443) to bar the importation of all goods containing cobalt, lithium and other rare earth minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through child exploitation and forced labor trafficking and also to counter China’s control of strategic metals and minerals in the global supply chain.

            “On the backs of trafficked workers and child laborers, the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting the vast cobalt resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo to fuel its economy and global agenda,” said Smith, who also serves as Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

            The DRC supplies 70 percent of the world’s cobalt, and excavation on newfound lithium deposits in the country is anticipated to begin this year. Two of the world’s most precious resources, cobalt and lithium are used to power the lithium-ion batteries that energize electric vehicles and other products.

            “The United States must stop aiding and abetting Communist China’s egregious exploitation of children—some as young as 6 years old—and start becoming less dependent on Xi Jinping’s brutal dictatorship,” said Smith, who also authored the China Trade Relations Act (HR 638), which would require China to stop its horrific human rights violations if it wishes to enjoy normal trade relations with the United States.

            Smith’s new legislation is drawn in part from insightful testimony provided at the congressional hearing he chaired last Congress that exposed the Chinese Communist Party’s egregious exploitation of children in Africa—especially the labor trafficking of up to 40,000 children in the DRC—to mine cobalt, lithium and various rare earth minerals in order to control this critical part of the global supply chain.

            One witness testifying at Smith’s hearing, Fr. Rigobert Minani Bihuzo, a Catholic priest from the DRC who has helped lead efforts to expose China’s horrific human rights abuses across the country, stated: “The number of artisanal and small-scale mining sites from the Ituri region to Lake Tanganyika is estimated to be 1,000 and the number of artisanal miners to be 200,000 people, among them thousands of children and pregnant women.”

            “The Chinese Communist Party’s quest for cobalt for batteries and lithium for solar panels to power the so-called Green Economy motivates human rapacity as an estimated 40,000 children in Congo toil in non-regulated artisanal mines under hazardous conditions,” said Smith, who noted that Chinese state-backed firms own 15 of the DRC’s 19 mines.

            Smith said the artisanal mines “are often no more than narrow shafts dug into the ground, which is why children are recruited—and in many cases forced—to descend into them, using only their hands or rudimentary tools without any protective equipment, to extract cobalt and other minerals.”

            According to the bill text, Smith’s legislation would prohibit the importation of “goods, wares, articles, or merchandise containing metals or minerals, in particular cobalt and lithium and their derivatives, mined, produced, smelted or processed, wholly or in part, by child labor or forced labor in the DRC”—a supply chain which extends to goods produced in China.

            Smith’s Countering China’s Exploitation of Strategic Metals and Minerals and Child and Forced Labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo Act (HR 4443) would also:

            ·         Prohibit the import of cobalt and lithium mined using child or forced labor by enforcing Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930;

            ·         Require the President to present an annual report to Congress on foreign persons found facilitating the exploitation of child labor in DRC mineral mining or abetting the evasion of US importation laws;

            ·         Instruct the President to impose sanctions on these individuals by prohibiting their transactions, making them ineligible for a visa, or revoking their current visa status;

            ·         Utilize bilateral diplomatic channels and multinational institutions where both the US and DRC are members to mitigate and prevent gross human rights violations in the DRC;

            ·         Require a report from the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, in conjunction with allies in the USMCA, to investigate child and forced labor in the Congo’s lithium and cobalt mines, bankrolled by the PRC, while promoting the development of alternative sources of supply and production in the US and DRC;

·         Enjoin the Secretary of State to produce an annual report on US strategies to enhance international awareness of child labor in DRC mining, alongside alleviation strategies; and

·         Instruct the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to increase efforts in preventing exploitative labor by expanding citizen participation and knowledge of the practice, increasing mining oversight, providing protective equipment, spurring local competition, and supporting ongoing policies to combat trafficking.

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