Companies listed in the U.S. are required by Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act to report whether they manufacture products that incorporate so-called conflict minerals (defined as gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighboring countries).
McGuireWoods partners Yves Melin and Alex Brackett, along with Estelle Levin – Director of responsible mining and sourcing consultancy, Estelle Levin Limited in Cambridge, UK – recently co-authored an article that reviews and assesses the impact of the conflict minerals rules of Dodd-Frank, summarizes the proposed European Commission rules for the EU, compares the EU proposal with the U.S.’s Dodd-Frank, and critically reviews it in view of its stated objective.
In the authors’ opinion, the EU proposal helps improve the ability of operators to perform due diligence of their supply chain. But, it does not contain any meaningful incentive meant to foster the responsible sourcing of minerals from conflict areas. If adopted as such, the proposed EU rules are likely to result in the same embargo as the one Dodd-Frank created, but for the EU this time, and for potentially a lot more countries than the African countries targeted by Dodd-Frank.
To view the full article, click here.
This article appeared on the McGuireWoods blog Subject to Inquiry, which provides commentary on white collar, congressional, SEC, energy enforcement and other government inquiries.