BIR members are expressing deep concern regarding the threatening negative impact of the application of the EU Shipments Regulation on the business of international recyclers. The revised regulation, which will be applied as of 12th July 2007, affects trade in recyclables within the EU, exports from the EU to countries in the rest of the world, and imports of recyclables into the EU.
During the commodity sessions of the recent World Recycling Convention of the Bureau of International Recycling in Athens, delegates were concerned by this regulation.
The first point of concern is of supply disruption to metal works, paper mills, and other material users around the world - disruption caused by the slowness of their governments in informing the EU that they will allow imports of recyclables needed by their industries, and the threats by some Member States to require time-consuming and costly notifications in the absence of any new response. These threats are despite non-OECD Decision Countries having agreed the import of most of the listed materials over past years.
Another serious danger is the loss of commercial confidentiality. The regulation stipulates the seller must use a form - ‘Annex VII’ - which lists his suppliers; the same form must be signed by the customer on receipt of the goods. This forces the seller to expose his supplier to his customer. In effect, the Annex VII formula is a business killer.
These were issues raised amongst others by federations representing the recycling sector over the years during development of the legislation in the EU Parliament, Council and Commission and not resolved in that process.
In consequence, the threatened disruption and damage emanating from the two main concerns mentioned above need to be addressed as a matter of urgency.