Product origin: EC official says some companies aim “to withhold the truth”
25/06/2014
Giving a keynote address as the general assembly meeting that representative body COTANCE held in Edinburgh on June 20, Dr Aguinaga said Europe had a positive trend in exports of leather and leathergoods and, with values of more than €9 billion per year, he said the sector had once again reached the levels of before the global economic turndown.
He said COTANCE was correct to want to play as active a role as possible in establishing new rules and regulations in the European Union (EU) for green products. “This will allow you to exact real influence and help avoid the biggest mistakes,” he said.
According to Dr Aguinaga, the ongoing debate about labels of origin on consumer products in the is another important area, but he confirmed that a north-south divide, between economies in the north in which the emphasis is on sourcing and selling and those in the south that place great importance on manufacturing, is still very much alive.
Proposals to make labels of origin compulsory were approved by the European Parliament in April, but it is up to the Council of Europe (usually made up of the heads of government of all the member states) to finalise the discussion and give the go-ahead to legislation. Dr Aguinaga made it clear that this will be a slow and difficult process and that member states favour and oppose the proposal in equal numbers.
Asked by leatherbiz about the reasons why there is so much opposition to the idea of giving the consumers basic information about where products come from, Dr Aguinaga said: “There is a lot of emotion in the debate and I would say the split is 50-50 at the moment. It’s certainly the case that some companies would like to withhold the truth. But they should not hide the origin of their products. If the product is made in Bangladesh, the consumer should know and be free to make a choice. Some companies have that business model and there are customers for that, so fair enough.”
He went on to say that when Italy takes up the rotating presidency of the European Union in July, it’s likely there will be a decision on how to take the discussion forward.
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