The Canadian Parliamentary study of imports of Chinese manufactured goods is continuing, with the most recent hearing discussing forced labor issues.

As CTM reported here and here, the Canadian Parliament has been holding  a series of hearings with stakeholders to study the issue of "Protecting Certain Canadian Manufacturing Sectors, Including Electric Vehicles, Aluminum and Steel, Against Related Chinese Imports and Measures."

Its latest hearing was on Monday, and at that meeting there was a good deal of discussion about forced labor issues. During the Q & A, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis raised the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the United States, which "creates a reverse onus, essentially a presumption that those companies that are operating in East Turkestan or Xinjiang are using forced labor." He then asked witness Mehliya Cetinkaya of the Alberta Uyghur Association, "[w]hy is this presumption reasonable, in your view, and should we adopt legislation in Canada that aligns with this bipartisan piece of legislation the United States"? Cetinkaya responded by stating that the presumption reversal was reasonable based on the evidence of forced labor that had been reported by various studies.

Genuis then said, "one of the things people say about enforcement around forced labor is that it's complicated," in particular that it's complicated "to unravel these supply chains and figure out exactly what came from where, and to have proper identification and accountability." However, he suggested that a simple solution would be to align with American friends and partners, "so that if a shipment is turned around from docking and unloading its goods in the United States, the same shipment cannot be unloaded in Canada." He asked Cetinkaya, "why don't we pursue greater collaboration with the United States, greater information sharing on forced labor? Wouldn't that solve the problem?"

Cetinkaya agreed that it would, and said "we should 100% be aligning with them, working together with them, and then we can even expand it further and make sure that we can really have a hand in stopping the use of forced labor." Genuis then commented, "by expand it further, I suppose you're talking about seeking to partner with other like minded democratic countries on a collaborative framework to keep forced labor out."

Genuis also brought up the USMCA, noting that it contains provisions on combating forced labor, and suggested bringing Canada into line with the USMCA and collaborating more with the Americans "in order to avoid potential criticism that we're not living up to our trade obligations."

MP Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay of the Bloc Québécois then raised the issue of solar panels, noting that American politicians have told him that there has been suspicion that solar panels that are refused entry into the U.S. are simply sent to Canada, and he asked Cetinkaya for her views on that. Cetinkaya responded that if the U.S. is stopping them, and the Canadian government "has not stopped a single shipment, ... then I do 100% have suspicions that that's happening."

In addition to the Parliamentary hearing, issues related to Chinese imports came up in a Canadian government press conference yesterday. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about the recent U.S. moves to ban Chinese- made software and hardware in vehicles, and if Canada is considering following the U.S. lead on that. Freeland responded that the short answer is "absolutely," and the longer answer is as follows:

our government has made very clear that we take really seriously intentional Chinese overcapacity, and we take very seriously the security threat from China. That's why we acted decisively in imposing tariffs on Chinese EVs, on Chinese steel, on Chinese aluminum. We are very mindful of the environmental standards, the labor standards, or I really ought to say, the lack of environmental standards, lack of labor standards that underpin that production, and we do have real security concerns. That was something that we talked about in imposing the tariffs on EVs, and something that came out very, very clearly in the consultation. As you know, we have a further consultation, which is ongoing, and we are looking at whether we need to impose further measures. And we're doing that, I would say first and foremost, really, in close consultation with Canadian industry, Canadian, labor.