Posted on 09/17/2024 6:48:45 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
While Americans have been focused on the election, the European Union has been in the process of passing a new law. It’s called the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and its reach will go far beyond European borders.
In fact, “It’s going to impact every single American,” Justin Haskins, author and editorial director of the Heartland Institute, tells Allie Beth Stuckey.
“Essentially, what it does is create ESG social credit scores for companies. ... These ESG scores are designed to transform the way companies operate, the kinds of products and services that they can sell, and then, by extension, transform societies around it,” Haskins explains.
So what does a company’s social credit score depend on?
Apparently, a variety of measures are used to determine a company’s credit score — things like “climate change,” “biodiversity,” “land and water use,” “social justice,” “LGBTQ” causes, and diversity in general.
“How diverse is your board of directors? How diverse is your management team? Like these are the kinds of things that are in these ESG scores,” says Haskins.
Even though the United States doesn’t have a social credit scoring law (most ESG initiatives exist in the private sector), Europe’s CSDDD will nonetheless hugely impact American businesses.
The law “applies to large companies that are based in the European Union” as well as “non-EU companies that do above a certain amount of revenue in the European Union, so for example Apple or McDonald's,” Haskins explains.
Further, these high-earning non-EU companies that fall under the jurisdiction of the CSDDD will be forced to adhere to its policies outside of the EU as well.
“It's not enough for them to change their policies in the EU; they have to change it in America. They have to change it everywhere they do business; that's what the law says, and if they don't, then they can be fined 5% of their total worldwide revenue, so for a company like Apple, if you do the math, that's $19 billion for one violation,” says Haskins, who predicts that “no one's going to violate this law because they can't afford to.”
If that wasn’t extreme enough, the law also applies to “almost all of the businesses that [companies under the CSDDD] work with in their supply chains, upstream and downstream, no matter where they're located or how much business those companies do in the EU.”
Haskins points to Ford as an example. Ford is an American company that does business in the EU and produces enough revenue to fall under the jurisdiction of the CSDDD.
Therefore, “All the businesses that [Ford does] business with in America are also doing these ESG scores,” he says, “so you could be a rubber manufacturer in Ohio that does no business in Europe, but you make rubber for Ford, so you also have to adhere to the EU rule, and Ford is going to be the one that imposes it on you through contractional insurances.”
Naturally, Ford will comply because if the company refuses, “then Ford gets fined 5% of their total worldwide revenue.”
“When you start playing out the ramifications of this, they’re enormous,” Haskins laments, adding that “through this [law], you can transform the entire country because you can transform hiring practices, business practices, the kinds of products that people sell and buy, the commitment to social justice goals,” etc.
>> European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen
... should be hanging from a meat hook. After she croaks let the birds of the air eat her flesh.
Bookmark
Esg meet my little friend Mr. Tariff.
Will congress protectUS business and enact a law that European law does not apply on US soil? If they balk, time to pull all business out of Europe.
If countries can get away with imposing onerous requirements outside of their jurisdiction, what happens when some other country (say the US or China) passes a law requiring that companies do something incompatible with the EU law?
TC Tractor them ..
If Harris wins and the Dems get the House and Senate this will become law here in the US as well. It’s part of her platform.
And who thought that Chinese rules are actually less harsh than EU rules, and tjat Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin (Who are Communists) are making more sense than the western EU bureaucrats? We are truly in clown world.
“Esg meet my little friend Mr. Tariff.”
——————-
Exactly what Trump will do on Day One if elected. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes a point of mentioning it fairly soon, for 2 reasons: first, to make the Europenises back off; and second, to show yet another contrast between him and Commiela, who would never say anything like this, let alone implement it. Hell, she couldn’t even understand the implications for US suppliers of big companies, or care about them at all.
Absolutely. I would focus more on Asia (a much bigger geography and population than the EU), plus Africa and Central/South America. Let the EU flounder.
The EU can't sustain itself internally, so if companies draw a line, they might re-think the policy. Wait, no they won't, because to insinuate they may have been wrong would hurt their fragile ego.
I’m just going to start my own “ESG” scoring system for Europe. It’s the “Europe So Gay” score.
The perfect example of why NOT having Central Planning is beneficial to everyone (except the bureaucracy). Having people who have had little or no experience with how things actually work in the private sector responsible for controlling it is absolute lunacy and can only result in economic catastrophe.
Check! and Checkmate!
Ford just announced dissolution of the ESG program
We should threaten to end all trade with all EU countries, with whom we import from more than we export to.
If the EU wants such an EU law it should only apply to EU based companies.
Lord Jesus come quickly, please!
The other half, I would buy a company already in compliance, and have them sue their Chinese value chain suppliers for performance under CSRD/CSDDD to make sure both China and EU get the hint.
The hint being, you so much as even send a letter to an American company about your EU law, you will fight an economic war with China you cannot win; not only one that you cannot win but one where China won't forget what you attempted to do.
Finally, have President Trump intercept any fines as due payment on EU NATO obligation$.
AMEN
Scr*w them. They never learn.
So we pass a law saying the EU gets fined a portion their GDP for every unjust fine they levy against US corps. How can they stop us?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.