Proposed Trump executive order would allow US firms to sell 'conflict minerals'

[kpete]

Draft executive order proposes suspension of portion of Dodd-Frank reforms designed to prevent US from selling minerals that are fuelling violence in Congo

The Trump administration has prepared a new executive order that would extinguish regulatory controls designed to prevent US companies profiting from and encouraging the spread of “conflict minerals” that are inflaming violence in Congo.

A draft executive order, composed last week and obtained by the Guardian, proposes a two-year suspension of a portion of the Dodd-Frank financial reforms that requires US firms to carry out due diligence to ensure that the products they sell include no minerals mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or neighbouring countries. The regulation was widely applauded as a mainstay of attempts to cut the umbilical chord between big business and violent warlords who have spread unrest throughout the Congo and caused the deaths of more than five million people since the 1990s.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/08/trump-administration-order-conflict-mineral-regulations

[dawg]

1. "conflict minerals" is just a fancy term for blood diamonds

Or am I wrong about this?

[haele]

2. It's also some rare earth minerals used in electronics

And industry. Before, tech companies couldn't buy the raw materials, instead, they would let the initial processing happen elsewhere - China, Pakistan - and then use the processed component part.

Now, US companies can buy directly from corrupt former colonial states run by a warlord or multi-national corporation.

Blood diamonds are easier to track, boycott or introduce political action on. Rare earth minerals have been more difficult due to third party processing. Now, it will.be pretty near impossible unless you want to go Luddite.
Of course, the way things are going, it may all be a non-issue because most people may not be able to afford new electronics or foreign sourced resources due to Trump politics and GOP economy.

Haele