Malaysia to implement mechanism to bar imports made with forced labour

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is developing a mechanism to bar the import of goods produced with forced labour as a proactive measure to strengthen international trade compliance and the regulatory requirements of trading partners, investment, trade and industry minister Johari Ghani said today.

He said the government had established an inter-agency task force on forced labour, chaired by his ministry, to study and formulate the relevant mechanism.

He said the task force included the finance, foreign, home, human resources, and transport ministries.

“It also involves agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the customs department, the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency, the police, the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, and the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat.

He was responding to a question from Hamzah Zainudin (PN-Larut) on the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade between Malaysia and the US.

Johari said Malaysia currently has no laws or mechanisms to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labour.

He said the implementation of the mechanism would also take into account developments in the US Section 301 investigation, including early indications of a possible 10% indicative tariff on Malaysia after July 24 in connection with the issue of forced labour.

He said the forced labour investigation was almost finished, while the investigation into market access was still in progress.

“The investigation into the forced labour issue is almost complete, and the US has given us an indication that after July 24, the country will impose an indicative tariff of 10% on us for this issue,” he said.

On June 2, Johari said the US had announced preliminary findings of an investigation into 60 countries that allegedly failed to enforce import bans on goods made using forced labour.

He said Malaysia was among 54 countries identified as not having specific legal restrictions on the entry of such goods. Six other countries had laws but did not enforce them.