German rubber industry urges government to scrap ‘supply chain due diligence act’

Frankfurt am Main, Germany – The German rubber industry association (WDK) has called on the federal government to abolish the country’s supply chain due diligence act as part of its promised relief measures for small and mid-sized companies.

Ahead of the Bundestag’s final sitting week before the summer break, WDK president Michael Klein said the coalition agreement between CDU/CSU and SPD clearly included plans to scrap the supply chain law.

Describing it as a “low-hanging fruit to achieve big returns,” Klein said it was “astonishing” that the measure had not yet been initiated.

Klein noted that the black-red coalition under Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz had entered office with considerable goodwill from industry.

Now, he stressed, the government must move quickly to reduce burdens on companies.

“One important lever was the elimination of reporting requirements… [and] suspending the supply chain due diligence act was an obvious step,” he said.

The measure, the WDK leader argued, would be “easy to implement” and send a strong signal to businesses.

While acknowledging the need to set up new ministries such as a “digital ministry,” Klein warned that the federal government “must not make the mistake of first creating new bureaucracy only to have to dismantle it later.”