Destination regulatory bans are beginning to move into the headlights as the hopefully effective measure in enforcing labour laws. The States, via its United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP), remains as one of the countries with much tougher labour rules—other countries, including the UK, Australia, and particularly Canada appear to be catching up. Ana Hinojosa, a USCBP Office of Trade executive director reveals that slapping companies with withhold release orders (WRO) is meant to send an “unambiguous” message to the trade community, maintaining that “[c]onsumers have a right to know where the palm oil is coming from and the conditions under which that palm oil is produced and what products that particular palm oil is going into.”
So far, the US imports bans seem to have an effect. The Malaysian-based companies who were slapped with the ban have respond to these allegations. WRP and Top Glove, who were issued bans following allegations of labour abuse against their migrant workers (including debt bondage), are reimbursing recruitment fees incurred by their foreign labour force (the WRO issued against WRP was revoked four months later in March 2020). Sime Darby recently conducted an internal assessment and claimed that it did not reveal evidence of systemic forced labour issues in its operations; the company stated that it will also be engaging an independent assessor. FGV has similarly stated that it will be appointing a third-party auditor to assess its operations.