KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 — The country is developing a mechanism to bar the import of goods produced using forced labour as a proactive measure to strengthen international trade compliance and regulatory requirements of trading partners, said Investment, Trade, and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.
The government has established an Inter-Agency Task Force on Forced Labour (IATFL), chaired by the Investment, Trade, and Industry Ministry, to study and formulate the relevant mechanism.
Other participating ministries include the Finance Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Home Affairs Ministry, the Human Resources Ministry, and the Transport Ministry.
“It also involves agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department, the Malaysian Border Control and Protection Agency, the Royal Malaysian 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 today.
Johari was responding to Larut MP Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin’s query on the latest status of the implementation of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade between Malaysia and the United States (US).
He added that Malaysia currently has no laws or mechanisms to prohibit the importation of goods produced using forced labour.
The implementation of the mechanism will also take into account developments in the US Section 301 investigation, including early indications of a possible 10 per cent indicative tariff on Malaysia after July 24 regarding the issue of forced labour.
Johari said the investigation into forced labour is almost finalised, while the investigation into market access is still in progress.
“The investigation into the forced labour issue is almost completed, and the US has given us an indication that after July 24, the country will impose an indicative tariff of 10 per cent on us for this issue,” he said.
On June 2, the minister 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.
Malaysia was among 54 countries identified as not having specific legal restrictions on the entry of such goods, while six other countries had laws but were found to have failed to enforce them.
