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The
lawmakers called for CATL and Gotion, which have ties to Ford
and Volkswagen respectively, to be added to what is known as the
entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the
report said on Thursday.
The entity list restricts the import of goods tied to what the
U.S. government has characterized as an ongoing genocide of
minorities in China's Xinjiang region. Beijing denies any
abuses.
Any allegation that Gotion "uses or is related to forced labor
is baseless and absolutely false", the company said in an
emailed statement to Reuters, adding that the selection of
partners is based on "strict review mechanisms and evaluation
criteria".
Volkswagen Group China has no evidence of human rights
violations in connection with its business activities in China,
a company spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement on
Friday.
Volkswagen is also investigating these allegations immediately,
"as we have done it in the past", the spokesperson added.
Volkswagen China Investment Co holds 26% of shares in Gotion,
and the latter is not nominated for any U.S. projects or import
business into the country, the Volkswagen spokesperson said.
CATL denied any suggestion that the company has used forced
labor, or has any connection to forced labor, the WSJ report
said.
Ford and CATL did not immediately respond to a Reuters request
for comment.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi, and Casey Hall; additional
reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Michael Perry, Lincoln
Feast and Rashmi Aich)
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