Obama Administration Should Oppose EU Conflict Mineral Rule, Says Industry Leaders
The Obama Administration should oppose European Union (EU) efforts to push stringent conflict mineral regulations that will damage United States manufacturers and defy the objectives of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, said dozens of business leaders in an Oct. 9 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman. Those EU efforts may include “differential and discriminatory” rules for products imported into the EU and those produced in the EU, read the letter, endorsed by the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Association of Exporters and Importers, among others.
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“Such a requirement would likely be at odds with the basic non-discrimination rule of the international trading system, highly damaging to manufacturers throughout the United States and entirely inconsistent with the goals of the TTIP negotiations,” read the letter. “We are concerned that requiring manufacturers to comply with two divergent regulations on conflict mineral disclosure will not only undermine the objectives of the TTIP talks, but will also seriously damage the competitiveness on both side of the Atlantic in the global economy.” The U.S. and EU must work in conjunction with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to institute unilateral models, the business leaders said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) put into law in 2012 a requirement for companies to publicly disclose their use of conflict minerals that originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country (see 12082308). The companies involved in that region must initially report to the SEC in May 2014. The compliance is proving “enormously challenging,” read the letter. “We are increasingly concerned by reports that the EU may promulgate a conflict minerals regulation that is even broader than the SEC’s rule,” the letter also stated.