Michael Kram

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you to all the witnesses for joining us today. Article 23.6 of the existing CUSMA reads, in part, “each party shall prohibit the importation of goods into its territory from other sources produced in whole or in part by forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory child labor.” Given that Canada is going to be importing electric vehicles from [more]

If the U.S. Department of Labor has found that many automobiles, electric vehicles and auto parts made in China are used with forced and child labour, can you give us some insight into the enforcement mechanism? Do we have inspectors who go to China to look at the assembly lines? How does that work?

C-35 Okay, so we can anticipate that automobile parts and EVs from these regions of China probably should be included in the list in Bill. Is that a fair statement?

Chair, I think that's my time.

C-35 Okay, but if we are, let's suspend disbelief for a minute and assume that the U.S. Department of Labor study is correct and that these parts and these imports do have to be stopped. We're going to stop these Chinese EVs as soon as Billis up and running and in force then. What does that look like, and what does that mean with the canola tariffs that the Chinese recently lifted?

I have a report here from the U.S. Department of Labor from September 2024. I'd like to read a quote from that report: In addition to manufacturing aluminum automotive parts, China processes a large percentage of other key inputs in the automotive industry. For example, China processes iron into steel, lithium and cobalt into battery-grade materials, and bauxite into aluminum. The U.S. [more]

C-35 In Bill, which was tabled last month, it does refer to a list. Subclause 6(1) reads: The Minister may, by regulation, establish a list of goods in respect of which there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they are produced wholly or in part by forced labour. C-35 Are we expecting automobiles, EVs and automobile parts from these troubling regions of China to be included in the list in [more]

Okay, but they're not going to say that all of a sudden it is okay to import goods made from child labour. I don't understand. If there is considerable evidence that automotive parts and automobiles are made with forced labour in China, and they're going to be coming to Canada, how could that not be a significant challenge during the CUSMA review?

Would you say that it's more than a little bit irresponsible for the government to have let in these 3,000 EVs from China without the ability to ensure at every step of the way that the supply chains do not have forced labour or child labour?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to circle back to the witnesses about the Chinese EV imports. Just a couple of weeks ago, in an article with the headline “Chinese-made electric vehicles start arriving in Canada”, CBC reported, “Nearly 3,000 Chinese-manufactured EVs landed in the country last month.” I'm told that's all based on data from Global Affairs Canada. What guarantees do we have [more]