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KUALA LUMPUR, October 2 – Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) today expressed concern about the ban on its exports to the United States (US), like FGV Holdings, following allegations that it uses forced labor by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In a statement, SDP said that despite exports amounting to only US $ 5 million (RM20.8 million), it sees the United States as an important growth market.
“The possible action by CBP is a concern for SDP, as we view the US as an important growth market for our products, despite the fact that the annual value of our exports to the US in the Today it is a modest sum of approximately US $ 5 million.
“The SDP had previously responded to the Liberty Shared (LS) petition summary and subsequent public statements to the best of its ability based on the limited information available,” the statement read.
LS, the Hong Kong-based anti-human trafficking NGO, filed a petition against the SDP for alleged child and forced labor.
In the petition filed with the US CBP agency in April, the group urged a ban on imports of the company’s palm oil products.
SDP, in response to this, said that it had repeatedly attempted to contact CBP for information so that it could proceed with its own investigations, but has received no correspondence from the agencies in the US to date.
“It is a matter of public record that SDP is the subject of a petition filed by Liberty Shared (LS) with CBP on April 20, 2020, as widely reported in the media.
“Despite our attempts to engage with CBP, we have not had an opportunity to provide any explanation and LS has also not provided SDP with details of the allegation.
“We will continue our commitments in the sincere hope that we can obtain the details of the allegations so that we can address them as soon as possible,” the statement continued.
