COTANCE says Europe must be ready for “corrective measures” on raw material exports
09/04/2013
During the meeting, the group expressed a high level of concern about recent developments in the raw materials market. “Availability of certain essential raw materials is vanishing at an increasing speed due to rising export of hides and skins from the EU and prices that are reaching unprecedented levels,” the organisation said afterwards.
Tanners most affected are those processing hides and skins to make leather for the world’s top fashion brands, COTANCE continued, the brands that earn prestige for the fashion industry in Europe. “They depend on the quality leathers that are the speciality of EU tanners,” it said.
The organisation went on to point out that many European tanners are already enduring the credit crunch in the euro zone, while having to cope with export restrictions on raw materials in most “resource-rich countries” around the world, while losing out on much of Europe’s own raw materials because buyers elsewhere are able and willing to pay high prices.
“They find it intolerable that public authorities continue to ignore the gravity of the situation,” COTANCE said of the tanners. “It is high time for taking the necessary measures to redress a situation that is holding a leading industrial sector in Europe hostage. Failure to do so could compromise seriously the competitiveness of Europe’s leather sector, the cradle of the creation of wealth and employment in the leather value chain.”
COTANCE has called for official monitoring of the availability and price of hides and skins across the EU, explaining that it believes existing EU regulations allow this as a step on the way to taking “corrective measures”. It added that such a step would be an acknowledgement that there is now a “critical shortage” of the required raw material in the EU.
“If exports of European hides and skins continue to rise at the current rate and access to overseas raw materials cannot be secured in the short term, the EU should not refrain from setting itself safeguard measures that secure for European tanners the necessary availability of resources at reasonable prices,” it said.
It asked trade authorities in EU member States to raise this issue without further delay with the European Commission to send “a clear sign of care” to Europe’s leather industry.
COTANCE said the leather sector comprises around 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises across the EU, employing directly some 50,000 workers and generating a yearly turnover of approximately EUR 8 billion, 25% of which comes from exports to customers in non-EU countries.
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