Top Glove allowed to restart US sales after passing checks on forced labor

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9 December, 2021

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An employee monitors latex gloves on hand-shaped molds moving along an automated production line at a Top Glove Corp. factory in Setia Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. The worlds biggest glovemaker got a vote of confidence from investors in the credit market, as the coronavirus fuels demand for the Malaysian companys rubber products. The World Health Organization is taking an??unprecedented step??of negotiating directly with suppliers to improve access to gloves, face masks and other forms of protective equipment. Photographer: Samsul Said/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Hong Kong (CNN Business)The United States has lifted an import ban on the world’s largest glove maker after concluding that its products are no longer being produced using forced labor.

In an announcement Friday, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency said that it had cleared Top Glove, a Malaysian company, after new findings in its investigation of the rubber glove manufacturer’s workplace.

US port officials were ordered to seize Top Glove imports in March, when CBP said that a months-long probe had found “sufficient information” that the supplier was using forced labor to produce disposable gloves.

A document published on the US government’s Federal Register said officials had found evidence that certain disposable gloves had been “produced, or manufactured in Malaysia by Top Glove Corporation Bhd with the use of convict, forced or indentured labor.”

Those issues have now been addressed, according to the law enforcement agency.

“Since that time, Top Glove has provided additional information to CBP, which CBP believes establishes by satisfactory evidence that the subject disposable gloves are no longer mined, produced, or manufactured in any part with forced labor,” the department said in a statement this week.

Top Glove shares rose as much as 10%in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, before paring some gains.

In a statement, the company said that it wished to “express its utmost appreciation to CBP for its responsiveness in modification of the finding.”

“Top Glove remains committed to the health, safety and well being of its people,” it added.

Top Glove said in April that it had “resolved” issues related to forced labor, such as the retention of identity documents, the intimidation of workers, and physical and sexual violence.

The company said that it had used standards issued by the International Labour Organization as guidelines, and that an independent consultant in the United Kingdom had verified its progress.

Source – https://edition.cnn.com