New German chancellor Merz calls on EU to scrap supply chain law | dpa international

Historically the EU could set many quality standards that would later be adapted in other markets too. This gave European companies an edge.

But even without other markets. If the EU wants to compete on price rather than quality inside the EU market the only option is to massively lower the wages and standard of living and erase all the purchasing power advantage that was built over the past century. The next step will be to revert to child labor and forced labor as even a cheap EU cannot compete with forcing people to work for free.

By enforcing supply chain transparency European companies are protected from outside competitors who aren't subject to the same labor standards inside their countries and in their supply chain.

Finally by abolishing the supply chain transparency Germany is helping Russia circumvent sanctions both in import and export and the coalition agreement of the new government already says that they don't want to surveil the rules but rather trust companies and just do random probes every now and then. This will be a massive boost to Russia and cement the defeat of Ukraine. Merz talks about how he wants to help Ukraine have been empty posturing during opposition times.

Just a matter of time until "We gassed ... things ... in the past, we want to do this again!" is legitimate again. The only thing I wonder about is: Already under Merz or only under Höckler?

The supply chain stuff isn't really about *their* workers. It's about ensuring fair conditions of workers in the supply chain.

Which *is* a bureaucratic burden. It *does* have a cost for no immediate economic benefit.

But if you consider human rights and morality, it's a necessary addition. Despite the cost.

Some companies however see the directive as adding excessive requirements that would impose bureaucratic burdens and reduce Europe's competitiveness.

Everyone else is being mean to their workers, so we want too! /s

The so-called Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is part of von der Leyen's long-term push for more sustainable and climate-friendly regulations.

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The law, this was adopted last year and is to be applied from 2028, aims to strengthen human rights worldwide. Large companies are to be held accountable for human rights violations in their supply chains including child or forced labour.

thats what conservatives do, cancel every single little effort made towards a better world

I remember a linked article that explored how the supply chain laws could turn into a long-term advantage for Europe.

Yes, it has a cost. But if we want to care about human beings and the environment, we have to regulate, and have that cost of supply chain requirements, just like we do have these within Europe for European companies.

If we do not have that, we decide to accept exploitation. If we abolish the regulation, we decide to support exploitation, because at large, that is the inevitable consequence, because it's cheaper.

Companies, the economy, can adjust just fine, as long as it's a stable environment. Dropping the regulation would not only have a human and environmental cost, but economic costs, and even more so if it were to be reapplied later. Even saying that it could be dropped is damaging to long-term market stability.

We really do have a Trump-light as our Chancellor now in Germany. He's only been in office for a few days and he's already flooding the zone with outrages at a faster rate than it's possible to process them. At least his office doesn't hold nearly as much power as the office of POTUS, and he needs the votes of the SPD to decide basically anything

He‘s not only embarrassingly incompetent as a leader, his party also fails to do the single thing boomers voted them for: Being conservative. They can’t stick to a plan. They‘re unreliable and inconsistent. It‘s a horror show for industry and potential investors because there‘s no way of telling if decisions from today are withdrawn tomorrow afternoon.

The Merkel years were wasted for sure but at least you could plan ahead when the government simply didin‘t get things done.

CDU is doing CDU things. Inhumane politics as usual.