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

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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.

The draft order claims that it is temporarily scrapping the rule, contained in section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was introduced in 2010, out of concern for human rights in the war-torn African country. It alleges that there is “mounting evidence” that the obligation on US firms to prove to regulators that they are not involved in blood minerals has “caused harm to some parties in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and have thereby contributed to instability in the region and threatened the national security interest of the United States”.

The draft continues in similar vein that “this Executive Order recognizes that humanitarian missions play an important role in the President’s responsibility to defend the national security interests of the United States”.

But international aid groups working with the Congolese victims of conflict minerals – such as blood diamonds and the mining of coltan that is widely used in mobile phones and other tech gadgetry – have lashed out at the proposal, saying that far from being a humanitarian measure it would embolden armed groups and the unscrupulous businesses in cahoots with them. Global Witness, which for years has investigated the role of mining in fuelling violence in eastern Congo, said that were the draft executive order put into effect it would be a “gift to companies wanting to do business with the criminal and the corrupt”.

The group added: “This law helps stop US companies funding conflict and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries. Suspending it will benefit secretive and corrupt business practices.”

In Global Witness’s analysis, contrary to the draft’s allegation that the Dodd-Frank regulation had increased instability in the region, responsible business practice was now beginning to spread in eastern Congo. “This action could reverse that progress. It is an abuse of power that the Trump Administration is claiming that the law should be suspended through a national security exemption intended for emergency purposes. Suspending this provision could actually undermine US national security.”

Perhaps anticipating an outcry from human rights groups, the draft order says that it will replace the regulatory efforts of Dodd-Frank with a new plan to tackle human rights violations and the funding of armed groups in the Congo. It gives the state department and the treasury 180 days to come up with a new proposal that would more effectively target specific companies known to be engaging in illegal activities.



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The conflict minerals law, first reported by Reuters, seeks to help stop mineral trading that inflames violence in central Africa. It requires companies to check whether they are funding conflict or human rights abuses through their purchases of minerals, including tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold.



Several products sold in the US contain these minerals, from jewelry and planes to laptops and mobile phones.

Concern about conflict minerals has been highlighted by a number of international organisations and celebrities. Last year the House of Cards star Robin Wright launched a new campaign involving Congolese and US activists designed to put a spotlight on the trade in conflict minerals and to try to stem the practice.

The Guardian asked the White House to comment on the draft order, but there was no immediate response.