EU Conflict Minerals Update

November 01, 2013｜Written by GreenSoft Technology, Inc.

The EU intends to move forward with its version of Conflict Minerals regulation. The Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade) is the EU Commission organization charged with writing the regulation. Fern Abrams, IPC's Director of Government Relations and Environmental Policy, attended a series of meetings last week in Brussels and came away with these observations:

DG Trade intends to align with OECD.
DG Trade plans to propose a global conflict minerals scope. DG Trade will not include a list of countries (like Dodd-Frank) because they "stigmatize" these countries.
For now the covered minerals/metals would be the same as the OECD guidelines: tin, tantalum, tungsten (3Ts) and gold. Other materials could be added.

The EU Commission intends to propose legislation by the end of 2013, though action is not expected until fall of 2014.

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