scholarly journals International Trade in Conflict Minerals: Solutions for the EU Regulatory Framework

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (28) ◽  
pp. 620-629
Author(s):  
Zuzana Silná ◽  
Zuzana Kittová
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
High Risk ◽  
External Action ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legislative Proposal ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Responsible Sourcing

Abstract International trade in minerals, particularly tin, tungsten, wolfram, and gold, from conflict- affected or high-risk areas can have significant implications on intensifying and perpetuating the conflicts. It occurs that illegal mines are run by armed groups. As a result, minerals acquired from such sources provide financial means to armed movements and support the conflict. In this respect, several international and national regulatory frameworks for responsible sourcing have been established. The most important international initiative is the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas, which provides importers with voluntary guidelines for responsible sourcing policy. In addition, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010. Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act lays down the rules for responsible sourcing that are compulsory for any company listed on the US stock exchanges. Following to these initiatives and further public consultations, the European Commission and the European External Action Service introduced a proposal for a comprehensive EU policy focused on responsible sourcing of conflict minerals. The package consists of a legislative proposal laying down rules for self-certification of responsible importers, as well as of additional measures providing for support for SMEs and incentives for importers of conflict materials. The aim of this paper is to analyse the legislative proposal and discuss its possible implications given the fact that the EU legislation should be compatible with standing frameworks.

The eu “Conflict Minerals Regulation”: Potentialities and Limits in the Light of the International Standards on Responsible Sourcing

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina Grado
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Responsible Sourcing

Business enterprises involved in the exploitation of mineral resources originating from conflict zones are at risk of financing armed activities and fuelling systematic violations of international law and human rights abuses. This article first analyses the initiatives developed by the UN and OECD aimed at encouraging companies to respect human rights and avoid contributing to conflict by adopting “supply chain due diligence” practices. Second, it focuses on a recent Regulation adopted by the EU to tackle trade in certain minerals sourced from conflict-affected and high-risk areas in order to highlight its main positive aspects and challenges and, at the same time, to ascertain whether and to what extent this new legislation is consistent with the UN/OECD international standards on responsible sourcing.

scholarly journals Trade in Conflict Minerals -- Congolese Warlords, MNC’s, and Dodd-Frank 1502

Perceptions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankit Deshmukh
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Market Prices ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Conflict Minerals ◽  
The Us ◽  
Face Threats ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Eu

This paper seeks to provide an overview of conflict mineral trade by analyzing it through an economic lens. Using data gathered from news sources, the memo first defines the term “conflict minerals” and identifies that the primary actors involved in the conflict mineral market are rebel militia groups and multinational corporations. The trade is mutually beneficial for these actors as it serves as the primary source of revenue for militia groups and allows multinational corporations to buy minerals at low costs. The memo also highlights the struggles legitimate Congolese miners face, as they face threats from militia groups and low market prices Also identified is Section 1502 of the Dodd Frank act, legislation which forces multinational corporations to list their mineral suppliers, thereby increasing supply chain transparency. While implemented with good intentions, it is extremely unsuccessful in stifling the conflict mineral trade as it lacks substantive regulatory measures. Furthermore, the EU and US plan to implement opposing conflict mineral trade policies — the EU looks to increase supply chain transparency while the US looks to repeal Section 1502 of Dodd Frank (an action which would decrease supply chain transparency). This paper believes that coordinated and homogenous action on the part of both federal governments and IGOs is necessary in order to concretely enforce restrictions on conflict mineral trade.

Exhaustion of Intellectual Property Rights and International Trade

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1850032 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Kobak
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Parallel Imports ◽  
The Us ◽  
Competition Laws ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Local Law ◽  
Degree Of Convergence ◽  
To Receive ◽  
The Eu

The exhaustion doctrine in intellectual property law generally limits the rights of a patent, copyright or trademark owner (“IP Owner”) to control the disposition of an article after the article has been sold by or under the authority of the IP Owner. In theory the doctrine enables the IP Owner to receive fair reward for surrendering its right to withhold a product from the market but thereafter permits free disposition and movement of chattels, preventing IP rights from unduly disrupting distribution systems.Under a strict territorial application of the doctrine, a sale in country A under a country A patent (or copyright or trademark) would exhaust the IP Owner’s rights only in Country A, and the IP Owner could rely on its separate patents in other countries to enjoin sales, seek damages or possibly even require customs officials to halt infringing imports at the border. This principle would hold even though the IP rights in all the countries are essentially the same. A strict territorial exhaustion doctrine is arguably consistent with the nature of IP rights, which are granted by each individual nation as an act of sovereignty and are strictly territorial in effect; while its impact will vary with other trade conditions (relative exchange rates, for example) and across different categories of goods, a strict territorial approach can serve as a barrier to free movement of goods and cause IP rights to act as private trade barriers.Opposed to the territorial principle is the historically more widely applied principle of international exhaustion. Under this version of the doctrine a sale by or under the authority of an IP Owner anywhere exhausts its right under all counterpart IP anywhere in the world. This doctrine has always seemed difficult to reconcile with the underlying systems of national IP rights but avoids the practical problems and trade barriers of a territorial principle.Court decisions in the last few years in three major trading areas -- the EU, Japan and the US – have rejected a strict international application of the exhaustion doctrine for some forms of IP, with the result that sales of some products by an IP Owner outside Country or trading region A do not necessarily prevent the owner from using Country A IP rights to prevent imports or sales there. This is an issue which the major international trade treaties leave to individual signatories’ local law. Subject to possible limits imposed by competition laws in what will probably be relatively rare cases, IP Owners in these three major trading areas may, with greater or lesser effort, now restrict parallel trade and discriminate in sale of some goods between markets with different levels of pricing.These recent decisions, while suggesting some degree of convergence among the three trading areas, do not necessarily correlate closely with the notion suggested by Guzman* (in connection with competition laws) that such legal regimes should be supported by net exporting nations, not net importers. It is possible that as the implications of these decisions become clearer and their possible effects more evident, they will eventually lead to further consideration and possibly further international trade negotiations on the subject of parallel imports.

Resolution and Insolvency of Banks and Financial Institutions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Schillig
Keyword(s):  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Consumer Protection Act ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

This book provides a detailed analysis and critical assessment of the EU and US resolution regimes for banks and financial institutions on a comparative basis. The book analyses the EU legal framework under the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive, and considers the challenges in national implementation through the two largest economies within the EU, Germany and the UK. The very influential laws of the US, (Securities Investor Protection Act 1970, and the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act: Dodd-Franck) are used as a comparative reference point. Through analysis of the new EU framework and of the more mature system in the US, the book considers whether and to what extent the EU framework and national regimes contribute to ensuring resolvability of financial institutions, how their efficacy may be increased with a view, in particular, to the resolution of cross border groups, and what the future may hold, especially in respect of a single European resolution authority.

scholarly journals The Formula ‘Freedom of Religion or Belief’ in the Laboratory of the European Union

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 7-53
Author(s):  
Marco Ventura
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
External Action ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Legal Translation ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The Us ◽  
International Religious Freedom Act ◽  
The Eu

This article argues that more and better knowledge about the past and present of the formula ‘freedom of religion or belief’ is likely to result in a stronger consistency between the terminology and the concept, while being conducive to a richer national and international conversation on the protection and promotion of ‘religion or belief’ related rights and freedoms. In the first section (The emergence) the author maps the chronology and context of the emergence of the formula: while confirming the importance of the United Nations, it is emphasized that UN documents were not alone, and were not in isolation. In particular, the importance of the Conference, then Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and of a general international conversation, accelerated by the adoption in 1998 of the US International Religious Freedom Act, is underlined. In the second section (The features) the most significant features of the formula are identified, and it is suggested that those features should be taken as the reasons why in the last two decades the formula has proved successful at the UN and OSCE level, as well as in the context of the European Union, mainly in its external action. In the third section (The EU laboratory) the formula is mapped in the EU context and the EU framework is interpreted as a laboratory where the formula is received, challenged and reinvented in a variety of ways. In the fourth and final session (The translation) ten sets of questions are offered with respect to the linguistic and legal translation of the formula in EU Member States. If addressed, it is held, those questions might considerably improve knowledge on the formula in both its top-down and bottom-up dynamic unfolding, thus empowering scholars and actors engaged with combining the global power of the formula in English and its variations in different languages and cultures.

Food Irradiation: The EU Regulatory Framework, Risk Assessment and International Trade Considerations

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Carreño ◽  
Paolo R. Vergano
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Plant Protection ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Food Irradiation ◽  
Product Categories ◽  
The Us ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Dose Limits ◽  
The Eu

This article looks at the different regulatory approaches on food irradiation, starting with international standards on food irradiation, describing the approach in the US and other third countries, and finally in the EU, where there has been a regulatory standstill since 1999. The current EU approach on food irradiation, which authorises irradiation of certain predefined product categories and sets upper dose limits, does not appear to be in line with the approach used under the relevant internationally-recognised standards, such as the Codex Alimentarius and the International Plant Protection Convention. There are potential legal conflicts between the current regulatory framework on food irradiation in the EU and the international trade framework of the World Trade Organization. Ultimately, the EU must base its measures on scientific principles, on relevant international standards, and choose the least trade-distortive measures that are available (i.e., ensure that they are applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health). In 2011, the European Food Safety Authority published new risk assessments on food irradiation, which the European Commission has requested in view of drafting new EU legislation on food irradiation, and which appear to open the way for a fundamental altering of the regulatory parameters (such that food irradiation regulations must be scientifically-justified and in line with the relevant international standards), and seem to weaken the EU stance vis-à-vis the possible instances where the current rules on food irradiation prevent (de jure or de facto) access to the EU market by third countries’ operators and products, particularly those of developing countries.

Impacts of Climate Change and Remote Natural Catastrophes on EU Flood Insurance Markets

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Tesselaar ◽  
W. J. Wouter Botzen ◽  
Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Flood Insurance ◽  
Insurance Premiums ◽  
Risk Areas ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Reinsurance Market ◽  
The Eu

<p>Flood insurance coverage can enhance financial resilience of households to changing flood risk caused by climate change. However, due to increasing risk in many areas, premiums are likely to rise, which may cause insurance to become unaffordable for low-income households. This issue can become especially prominent in high-risk areas, when premiums are risk-reflective. Consequently, increasing premiums can reduce the demand for insurance coverage when this is optional, as individuals often underestimate the flood risk they face. After a flood, uninsured households then have to rely on private savings or ex-post government disaster relief. This situation is suboptimal as households may not save sufficiently to cover the damage, and government compensation can be uncertain. Using a modeling approach we simulate unaffordability and uptake of various forms of flood insurance systems in EU countries. To do this, we build upon and advance the “Dynamic Integrated Flood Insurance” (DIFI) model, which integrates flood risk simulations, with an insurance sector and a consumer behavior model. We compute the results using various climatic- and socio-economic scenarios in order to assess the impact of climate- and socio-economic change for flood insurance in the EU. Furthermore, we assess the impact of remote natural disasters on flood insurance premiums in EU countries, which occurs through the global reinsurance market. More specifically, after large natural disasters or compound events occurring outside the EU, which are likely to occur more often due to climate change, reinsurance premiums can temporarily rise as a result of a global “hard” capital market for reinsurers. The higher cost of capital for reinsurers is then transferred to households in the EU through higher flood insurance premiums. We find that rising average, and higher variance, of flood risk towards the end of the century can increase flood insurance premiums, and cause higher premium volatility resulting from global reinsurance market conditions. The rise in premiums increases unaffordability of insurance coverage and results in declining demand for flood insurance. A proposed policy improvement is to introduce a public reinsurance system for flood risk, as governments can often provide cheaper reinsurance coverage and are less subject to volatility on capital markets. Besides this, we recommend a limited degree of premium cross-subsidization to limit the growth of premiums in high-risk areas, and insurance purchase requirements to increase the level of financial protection against flooding.  </p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document