RINA has helped to deliver a European Commission study into a future support system for EU small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in importing certain minerals from conflict-affected regions.
Such businesses are under increasing legislative and commercial pressures to conduct due diligence in their supply chains, but many are unsure how to do this or where to get assistance.
In 2017, RINA worked with the responsible sourcing and mining consultancy Levin Sources to aid the European Commission in tackling this challenge – something that coincided with the May 2017 adoption of the EU “Conflict Minerals Regulation” and Commission efforts to raise awareness of the law with businesses of all sizes before new requirements apply in 2021.
RINA’s role was to investigate, characterise and survey SMEs that import tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold into the EU. RINA’s research revealed that some EU SME importers are already practising due diligence in their supply chains, but not all. Obtaining information from suppliers and determining its veracity (e.g. because of uncertainty over multiple industry certifications, not all of which certify the same minerals or to the same extent) presented significant hurdles to due diligence for EU SME importers. SMEs additionally expressed the need for example questions to ask their suppliers together with guidance on what information to expect from suppliers, and how to assess such information.
The final report of the study, including RINA’s research report as an appendix, is published here.
For more information, please contact RINA’s Product Regulatory Compliance Team at productregulation@rina.org.
