Importers of minerals from conflict zones will be able to certify their goods have not financed warlords under a European scheme proposed on Wednesday, which would also help manufacturers show products are free of ‘blood metals’.
Much of the gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten used in electronics and lighting is mined in areas of civil conflict in Africa.
The European Union, which increasingly requires trading partners to adopt political and human rights reforms, wants to pressure importers to boycott the violent militias that control the raw materials.
“We are committed to preventing international trade in minerals from intensifying or perpetuating conflict,” EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht and foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a joint statement.
Under the EU’s voluntary scheme, which could come into force by the end of next year, the approximately 420 companies that import all minerals into the 28-nation bloc could seek EU certification that their goods are conflict-free.
What’s more, companies such as Apple or Siemens that source metals from certified importers would be eligible to bid for lucrative contracts across the EU’s many governments and institutions.
In the United States, the Dodd-Frank Act already obliges U.S stock exchange-listed companies to disclose the use of minerals from an African conflict zone in their supply chains.
European officials say that creating an EU version of that law could lead importers to abandon Africa altogether and plunge honest mining communities in those areas deeper into poverty.
The European Commission, the EU executive, says the U.S. law already pressures companies to avoid buying conflict minerals.
