APIC asks minister to put EU leather law in Portugal’s presidency programme
Portugal’s national leather industry body APIC has sent a letter to the country’s minister for the economy, Dr Pedro Siza Vieira, to request his support for a proposed new leather law.
APIC has been carrying out groundwork for some time on possible legislation that could come into force domestically to protect leather’s identity.
However, Portugal will take over the presidency of the European Union for six months, starting in January and APIC has formally asked Dr Siza Vieira to consider including EU-wide proposals to protect the authenticity of leather as part of the country’s programme for its half-year presidency.
Leather’s industry body for the whole of Europe, COTANCE, helped APIC present its case to the minister. The submission quoted COTANCE as saying that, in 2017, “abusive and deceptive uses of the term leather” by companies that were really selling synthetic substitutes caused the tanning industry in the EU to lose €1.7 billion, 20% of its annual turnover.
