First new labour laws, next the environment
Having implemented a new labour law on January 1, entitling Chinese workers to a minimum wage, fixed contracts and severance pay, the government is now looking at imposing new environmental laws that could again cause serious repercussions within the leather industry and halt growth.
Many commentators had already predicted that the country would try to “clean up its act” in terms of the environment before the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer and it appears that they may have been right as new proposals could see a tax levied on companies that cause pollution.
According to Chinese media reports the government has proposed two plans, one of which would see a profit-related tax, based on the fact that companies would pay an extra environmental tax on the earnings from goods which consume resources or pollute the environment; the other would see firms taxed on the amount of pollution they cause in terms of sulphur, sulphide and CO2 emissions as well as the amount of effluent and solid waste they produce, all of which are likely to hit the leather industry hard.
