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Article

5 Feb 2014

Author:
Francesco Guarascio, Reuters

European Union seeks to stem use of conflict minerals

The EU's trade chief will present a voluntary scheme...aimed at stemming the import of minerals from conflict zones and prevent mining them from financing war and strife, EU officials said...Karel De Gucht's proposal to the European Commission...will encompass gold, tungsten, tantalum and tin, in a bid to pressure importers to classify them as coming from areas free of conflict...Initially devised to include only the Republic Democratic of Congo, as U.S. legislation does, the EU's proposal is now likely to be extended to a range of conflict regions including Myanmar to Afghanistan...The European Union...wants to introduce a...scheme [similar to the Kimberley Process] for other minerals and make its disclosure rules binding for importers, although there is still internal debate on the issue...The latest draft of De Gucht's proposal envisages only a voluntary participation in the conflict minerals scheme...