Plantation industries and commodities minister Zuraida Kamaruddin appealed to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to provide flexibility to the company on the issue.

She said time should be given for an independent audit report to refute the allegations of forced labour.

“The actions of the CBP are hasty and unjustified given that SDP is compiling a comprehensive independent report on allegations of forced labour which will be submitted to the US in due time,” she said in a statement.

This comes after the CBP issued a notice of finding that said some of the company’s palm oil products were produced using forced labour, citing a report by Thompson Hine SmartTrade.

The notice took effect on Jan 28, resulting in SDP’s palm oil products being seized by port authorities and forfeiture proceedings commencing.

Zuraida said her ministry would seek further clarification from the relevant agencies in the US to reach an immediate resolution to the issue.

“The ministry will work closely with Wisma Putra, the international trade and industry ministry and agencies in the US so that our palm oil can be traded freely globally.

“I strongly wish to reiterate that the Malaysian palm oil industry operates under strict standards consistent with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals,” she said.

Zuraida said her officers were working closely with the related ministries to ensure the palm oil industry in the country complied with domestic and international laws and practices.

The minister also called on all Malaysians to support the ministry in its efforts to address anti-palm oil propaganda by Western countries that were clearly intended to damage the country’s palm oil industry.