Commercial Information Circular

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref.: EIC 230/2/12

8 June 2017

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 468/2017

European Union (EU)* : Supply Chain Due Diligence Obligations for Union Importers of Conflict Minerals

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have adopted Regulation (EU) 2017/821 to establish a Union system for supply chain due diligence in order to curtail opportunities for armed groups and security forces to trade in tin, tantalum and tungsten, their ores, and gold. The Regulation is designed to provide transparency and certainty regarding the supply practices of Union importers, and of smelters and refiners sourcing from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.

DETAILS

2.The Regulation lays down the supply chain due diligence obligations of Union importers of minerals or metals containing or consisting of tin, tantalum, tungsten or gold, as set out in Annex I of the Regulation. The Regulation, however, shall not apply to Union importers of minerals or metals where their annual import volume of each of the minerals or metals concerned is below the volume thresholds set out in the same Annex. The volume thresholds are set at a level that ensures that the vast majority, but no less than 95%, of the total volumes imported into the Union of each mineral and metal under the Combined Nomenclature code is subject to the obligations of Union importers set out in the Regulation.

3.With the exception of Article 7(4), the Regulation shall not apply to recycled metals. Nor the Regulation shall apply to stocks where a Union importer demonstrates that those stocks were created in the current form on a verifiable date prior to 1 February 2013.

4.Union importers of minerals or metals shall comply with the supply chain due diligence obligations set out in the Regulation and shall keep documentation demonstrating their respective compliance with those obligations, including the results of the independent third-party audits. Please refer to the Regulation for greater detail, which can be accessed through the link below:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R0821&from=EN

ENQUIRIES

5.For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,

(Charles LO)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU member countries are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.