WASHINGTON — The chairs of three U.S. Home of Representatives committees demanded Ford Motor flip over paperwork tied to its partnership with Chinese language battery firm CATL and threatened to name CEO Jim Farley to testify earlier than Congress.
Republicans Jason Smith, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Mike Gallagher — who chair the Methods and Means, Power and Commerce and China choose committees — collectively wrote to Farley with a brand new deadline searching for paperwork concerning the CATL partnership and the automaker’s plan to construct a $3.5 billion battery manufacturing plant in Michigan utilizing Chinese language know-how.
“Ford’s ongoing refusal to offer substantive responses … raises critical considerations concerning its licensing settlement with CATL,” the lawmakers wrote on Tuesday in a beforehand unreported letter seen by Reuters.
Republicans have been probing Ford’s battery plant plan for months over considerations it might facilitate the move of U.S. tax subsidies to China and depart Ford depending on Chinese language know-how.
On Monday, Ford mentioned it paused work on the Michigan battery plant, citing considerations about its capability to function it competitively because it stays in broader contract negotiations, drawing condemnation from the United Auto Employees union.
The lawmakers need paperwork together with the Ford/CATL licensing settlement, communications between Ford and the Biden Administration referring to the licensing settlement and achievable tax credit, and data of Ford’s data of CATL’s “obvious try and protect its connection to Xinjiang-based firms.”
Human rights teams accuse Beijing of abuses in opposition to Xinjiang’s Uyghur inhabitants, together with the mass use of pressured labor in internment camps. China denies the allegations.
CATL didn’t instantly reply to an emailed request for remark.
The lawmakers mentioned if Ford doesn’t disclose data sought beforehand by Oct. 6 “we’ll take into account different means to acquire the paperwork, together with obligatory course of or insisting that you simply seem earlier than Congress to publicly clarify your failure to conform.”
A Ford spokeswoman mentioned the corporate had answered a number of congressional letters and “completely responded to questions and shared detailed details about Ford’s work to strengthen home battery manufacturing” however didn’t say if the corporate would adjust to the doc request.
In 2022, Congress handed laws barring $7,500 in future client EV tax credit if any battery elements are manufactured or assembled by a “overseas entity of concern.”
Ford has been awaiting steerage to find out if batteries produced by the Marshall plant would run afoul of the necessities.
Final week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk additionally confronted questions from Smith concerning the automaker’s relationship with CATL.
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