Over $800 Million Worth of Chinese Solar Imports Comes Under US Customs Scrutiny for Using Slave Labor

Large solar panels are seen in a solar power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang region on May 8, 2013. STR/AFP via Getty Images

Solar panel shipments from China are coming under scrutiny of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) following a law passed last year that seeks to block Chinese solar imports made using forced labor of the Uyghur community in the Xinjiang region.

In June last year, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) came into effect. “Between June 2022 and January 2023, 2,692 shipments were identified as potentially violating the terms of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” a CBP spokesperson said to Fox News. “These shipments were valued at $817,466,574.”

The law passed with bipartisan support and was signed by President Joe Biden in December 2021. According to the act, all goods produced in China’s Xinjiang region, whether in whole or in part, are prohibited from being imported into the United States unless the importers receive an exception.

Roughly 50 percent of shipments that the CBP has held for inspection since UFLPA came into effect have been solar panels and related components. Only around a third of the goods taken in for inspection were released by the agency.

The Xinjiang region in China is the source of around 45 percent of polysilicon used in the world, a material that exists in 19 out of 20 solar modules, as highlighted in the 2021 report, “In Broad Daylight.”

The country’s polysilicon industry shifted to Xinjiang roughly five years earlier due to government tax incentives, cheap coal energy, as well as subsidies for using coerced “surplus laborers” from the Uyghur community, the report revealed.

Enforcing UFLPA, but Lax Attitude From Biden Administration

A year before UFLPA became effective, CBP had issued a withhold release order for a Chinese company from Xinjiang called Hoshine Silicon Industry Co. Ltd. Under such orders, the applicable goods are detained for inspections automatically. An investigation had discovered that the firm’s manufacturing process may have included the use of forced or slave labor.

The UFLPA comes with a presumption according to which any item produced in Xinjiang is assumed to use forced labor. As such, UFLPA restrictions automatically apply to such goods. The importer must then provide convincing proof that no forced labor was used in the production process.

The Biden administration’s push for solar power adoption is also under scrutiny due to its potential negative impact on UFLPA.

In a letter last month, Republican lawmakers warned that the administration’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last year would boost the import of solar panels from China, thereby making it difficult for the CBP to enforce the Uyghur protection act.

Lawmakers also criticized the government for adopting a lax attitude in enforcing the act. “The Biden administration has sent signals that seem to encourage importing solar panel products in violation of the UFLPA,” the letter said.

“President Biden’s decision to stop investigating solar panels imported from Southeast Asian countries using components from the People’s Republic of China sends a further wrong signal that this administration is unconcerned with America’s reliance on forced labor.”

Restricting Solar Tech Export

Meanwhile, China is reportedly considering imposing export restrictions on technologies used in the manufacture of solar panels in a bid to maintain its dominance in the global market.

Beijing is said to be canvassing public comments on the matter. On Dec. 30, the Ministry of Science and Technology had added some of these technologies to the “restricted” list of items in an export control circular.

The technologies are related to boosting the electricity output of solar panels. Such technologies allow each unit of power to be produced at a cheaper cost.

However, some experts believe that such a move could backfire on China and could make the expansion of Chinese solar firms in other nations difficult.

As of last year, China accounted for 97 percent of global wafer production, according to the International Energy Agency.