BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Shortly before the German Supply Chain Act comes into force at the start of the year, business representatives have called for simplifications in its implementation. "The law is poorly crafted and it comes at an inopportune time. We are extremely dissatisfied with it," Dirk Jandura, president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services, told the German Press Agency. He said he knew of no wholesaler who was against human rights and environmental protection or in favor of child labor. But the implementation of the law is a disaster, he said. "Many things are very, very difficult to handle," he said.

Jandura also criticized a list of questions from the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (Bafa), which is supposed to check compliance with the law. This, he said, was "a purely theoretical construct and far removed from practice."

The president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Peter Adrian, also criticized the questionnaire. He said the Bafa was plaguing businesses with 437 data fields in the worst crisis in decades. This is "an absurdity. He said the DIHK had warned in vain of a "cascade effect" whereby companies would pass on the law's requirements to suppliers and business partners. "Why can't we at least postpone implementation and in the meantime work together to make it more practicable?"

Siegfried Russwurm, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), stressed that the business community is behind the goals of the Supply Chain Act. "However, I fear the world will not become a bit of a better place as a result, should the law come into force as currently planned," the BDI chief said. He said the questionnaire is "a bureaucratic nightmare and strangles medium-sized companies in particular." Indirectly, all companies would be hit, "because large companies would inevitably pass on the requirements to their smaller suppliers." Bafa must now greatly simplify the procedures and questionnaire for mandatory reporting, he said.

The German Supply Chain Act comes into force on January 1. It will initially apply to companies with more than 3,000 employees. According to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), around 900 companies are affected. In essence, it means that companies have a responsibility to ensure that human rights are respected in their supply chains. To this end, they will have to implement a series of measures in the future./hoe/rwi/DP/zb