SGS: Nothing toxic in Japan shipment

A top official of Societé Generale de Surveillance (SGS), a Customs inspection firm, insisted yesterday that a controversial shipment found containing trash from Japan did not have any toxic substance when the company inspected it before leaving for Manila.

In his statement during a Senate hearing on the alleged illegal shipment, David Robinson, SGS chief executive officer, said SGS-Japan conducted an exhaustive examination of the shipment and even came up with written reports and photographs to back up its findings.

"We have a report, we have photographs. There were no materials that can be considered hazardous or toxic during our examination," he said.

Robinson explained that SGS had been consistent with its contract with the Philippine government and only gave an opinion on the value and classification of the goods presented to them.

"We take details from the importer, we send details to our office overseas. They verify these details, sometimes with physical inspection when the contract calls for physical inspection," he said, adding that the inspection details are sent to SGS offices overseas and forwarded to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and back to the importer.

The idea, he explained, was for the SGS to give the BOC an opinion on the value and the classification of the goods, "so as to assist the bureau in collecting the proper amount of taxes and duties."

Robinson said that since the export of goods was the responsibility of the importer, SGS loses control of the cargo after inspecting it. "We give an opinion at the time we see them, and what happens next is the responsibility of the exporter," he said.

He added that SGS was seriously concerned with the shipment since "those types of articles (in the shipment) were not described in the inspection report in Japan."

"There is no contractual obligation on our part to say that what was inspected in Yokohama was the same cargo that arrived in the Philippines. We are a liaison office. Officially and legally, that is our function," Robinson stressed.