Correspondence
Email sent to Marie Giannini, Corporate Media Enquiries at Intertek.
The email asked for comment on The Outlaw Ocean Project's findings that processing plants certified under the organization's auditable standard had accepted Uyghurs through Chinese government labor transfers before the certifications were issued.
James Styles of Dentons Global Advisors, Intertek's communications adviser, emailed a brief statement: “For reasons of confidentiality, we are not able to comment on specific client matters other than to say that our scope of work was limited to product chain of custody.”
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied, asking Intertek to confirm it has only ever conducted MSC traceability audits at all three of the plants referred to in the initial email from The Outlaw Ocean Project to Intertek(Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Foodstuff Co. Ltd., Rongcheng Taiming Foods Co. Ltd. and Rongcheng Huiying Food Co. Ltd.), and if it has conducted any social audits at 11 named Chinese plants.
James Styles of Dentons Global Advisors replied for Intertek: "In response to your question regarding the three plants referred to in your first email, please see below a statement (to be attributed to an Intertek spokesperson) which clarifies the position for all three of those plants: The MSC audits we performed at these sites relate strictly to product chain of custody. We are not the social auditor at these sites and we do not perform social audits of these sites under the MSC programme or otherwise. For reasons of client confidentiality, we cannot comment further."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied to clarify that comments would need to remain on-record, and asked if Intertek could comment on the other eight processing plants named in the previous email to them.
James Styles of Dentons Global Advisors replied for Intertek to say that it won’t be providing any further comment owing to the confidentiality processes they have in place with clients.
The Outlaw Ocean Project asked why Intertek would confirm if they've audited three of the sites queried, but not provide any confirmation for the other eight.
James Styles of Dentons Global Advisors replied, saying: "Intertek undertook MSC product chain of custody/traceability audits only at the three sites in Ian’s original email," and adding: "The company is not the social auditor and does not conduct social audits at any of the 11 sites."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Again, we are not agreeing to go off record or on background. Our questions (and your answers) are and will remain on record."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "Since we were last in contact with Intertek, our ongoing investigation into the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry has uncovered further findings which we wanted to raise with you. We have found visual evidence of North Korean workers at MSC-certified plants in Liaoning Province, China, including Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods and Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff. Intertek is identified in the MSC’s records as the certifier for each of these two plants. While we are unable to share the evidentiary materials with you at this time, we can say it includes videos of North Koreans at Dandong Yuanyi in 2022 and Dandong Taifeng in 2023. The use of overseas North Korean workers was banned by the United Nations Security Council in 2017, with Resolution 2397 setting a deadline of December 2019 for the repatriation of all such workers to North Korea. Can you clarify if Intertek’s audits at either of these plants noted the presence of North Korean workers?"