(3 minutes read)
The mineral sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in for a shock. In a significant development, the U.S. House has introduced legislation to ban imported products containing minerals critical to electric vehicle batteries mined using child labour and other abusive conditions in DR Congo.
The U.S. legislation would prohibit importing 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 labour or forced labour in the DRC. Violation of child labour norms will also attract other punitive actions. It empowers the US president to identify and impose sanctions, including visa and transaction prohibitions, on foreign actors who facilitate and exploit child labour in Congo. The extraction of minerals has been linked to child and exploitative labour, environmental abuses, and safety risks.
By its very wording, the bill targets China. Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey says forced labor and exploits of children in cobalt mines in the impoverished but resource-rich central African country is very common. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s largest producer of cobalt. This mineral is used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. The manufacture of electric vehicles and the use of rare earth-like cobalt is bound to go up as the world is gearing for replacing polluting fossil fuels.
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China controls the majority of the cobalt mines in DR Congo. That gives strength to Beijing to influence the global supply chain for electric vehicles and other products. China is exploiting the vast cobalt resources of the Democratic Republic of Congo to fuel its economy and global agenda. The US alleges that a large number of child labour are used for cobalt mining.
