Trump could allow US businesses to sell 'conflict materials'
Source: Newsweek
09 FEB 2017 AT 10:46 ET
U.S. President Donald Trumps administration has drafted an executive order to suspend regulation currently in place to prevent American companies from buying conflict minerals linked to violence in Congo.
A draft executive order acquired by the Guardian proposes a two-year suspension for part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 2010, which was passed in 2010 under the administration of Barack Obama.
Section 1502 of the act requires American companies to disclose whether any of the minerals used in their products were mined in Congo. The Central African country is rich in minerals such as gold ore, diamonds, tin, tungsten, and coltan which is widely used in capacitors in smartphones, laptops and other electronics.
The mining of such minerals has been exploited by rival factions in a bloody and complicated conflict in Congo, which has been concentrated in the east of the country. The so-called Second Congo War broke out in 1998, with the Congolese military fighting a large number of rebel groups allegedly backed by Rwanda and Uganda. More than 5 million people are thought to have died in what is considered the worlds deadliest conflict since World War II.
But Trumps draft order claimed the current regulation has had both positive and negative unintended consequences, including some job loss. The order cited the Securities and Exchange Commissions 2014 estimation that it would cost U.S. companies up to $4 billion in initial costs to comply with the order, on top of around $200 million per year after that.
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/trump-could-allow-us-businesses-to-sell-conflict-materials/
shraby
(21,946 posts)Or are they going to start passing actual legislation, which I might add might show their mean colors to the public.
EarthFirst
(2,900 posts)Doing it this way keeps their records squeaky clean for a shoe-in during the midterms...
I'm sure many of them are just fine with this method.
treestar
(82,383 posts)by EO.
hibbing
(10,096 posts)groundloop
(11,518 posts)Unless I'm badly mistaken a fucking executive order can't overturn a law. How does tRump plan to make this work?
Bettie
(16,089 posts)simply won't enforce the law.
Thus, he can overturn it by EO, becasue he owns all of them and they are obedient to their orange overlord.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I almost laughed at the would-be-holy invocation of "job loss." The man is completely devoid of moral and ethical constraints, and so no doubt are most of those around him.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Our new SoS also has made a successful career of dealing as necessary with criminal governments to get local people out of the way of Exxon's way.
melm00se
(4,990 posts)what the impact such an EO (if legal and implemented):
Would companies (especially those that export) abandon the old regulations? I know that the EU has regulations regarding conflict materials. Would these US companies jeopardize their ability to ship into those markets?
Bayard
(22,059 posts)Lives lost are nothing compared to job loss. And I'm sure he's talking about American jobs. Jobs for the Congo be damned.
LeftInTX
(25,255 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)endangered species like groups of poached baby gorillas, gain official paperwork on the poached wildlife & fly the stuff through Jordan.