KUALA LUMPUR (March 9): The EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Eurocham) is monitoring the situation when it comes to the US Customs and Border Protection (US CBP)’s Withhold Release Orders (WROs) on palm oil and palm products produced by FGV Holdings Bhd and Sime Darby Plantation Bhd.
During a webinar entitled “Sustainability And Food Safety: The Perspective of the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry” organised by Eurocham, Eurocham Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sven Schneider said the matter has been discussed internally and studied at Eurocham.
“It is something where we need to keep an eye on, it always alerts that such policy measures are taken in other places in the world.
“I cannot give an answer as to what the response is at the moment, but definitely, it is something that we are studying,” Sneider said on the issue of whether European companies were concerned over the WROs issued against the plantation giants.
To recap, both Sime Darby Plantation and FGV were slapped with their respective WROs, after allegations of forced labour in their production processes were raised to the US CBP.
These WROs are still active.
FGV and Sime Darby Plantation’s WROs were issued in September and December respectively, last year.
Both FGV and Sime Darby Plantation have said they are working with the US government to remove the WROs.
Last week, Sime Darby Plantation established an expert Stakeholder Human Rights Assessment Commission and appointed Impactt Ltd as a third-party assessor to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the group's labour practices across its Malaysian operations last week.
This commission will also comprise a stakeholder consultation panel which will be providing additional views on Impactt's assessment methodology, lending further credibility to the entire process. The panel will also evaluate the presence of forced labour indicators in its operations, as well as determine how prevalent the issue would be, should such indicators emerge.
It is worth noting that another US government agency, the US Government Accountability Office (GOA) has called on the CPB to publicly disclose the process for modifying or revoking a WRO issued on products suspected of using forced labour entering the US. The CPB has agreed with the GOA's findings and recommendations.