THE US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stopped seizing Top Glove Corporation Bhd’s (Top Glove) disposable gloves, pursuant to the Withhold Release Order (WRO).
“The Company would like to say that there was no financial impact to us based on the current assessment,” Top Glove said in a statement.
Last week, the CBP started seizing the company’s glove products after it was found engaging in forced labour practices.
The CPB Office of Trade, after consulting its Treasury Secretary, published forced labour findings report against disposable gloves produced by Top Glove in the Customs Bulletin and in the Federal Register.
“We have sufficient information to believe that Top Glove uses forced labour in the production of disposable gloves. Merchandise covered by the forced labour finding is subject to seizure upon arrival at a US port of entry.
“The finding is the result of a months-long CBP investigation aimed at preventing goods made by modern slavery from entering US commerce,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of the CBP Commissioner, Troy Miller.
At the time, Top Glove told FocusM that that an independent audit by UK based- Impactt Limited (Impactt) on the establishment found no evidence of forced labour practices there.
On that note, the glove maker said that since April 1, it had clarified the matter with CBP and no additional issues pertaining forced labour have been discovered.
“However, the CBP had asked us to carry out several rectification and verification work based on the earlier findings.
“One is that identity documents retained by recruitment agencies must be returned to workers, which only involves less than one percent of them.
“And the other issue is about remediation for workers who could not come to Malaysia due to COVID-19 lockdowns,” Top Glove stated. – April 6, 2021.
