The German economy is urging the federal government to take action in view of poor economic forecasts. “The government has no better alternative than to get started,” said the managing director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), Martin Wansleben, on Thursday in Berlin. “The crisis is here.” Wansleben called, among other things, for the abolition of the German supply chain law. Stopping the EU supply chain law is right, but the German law, which is already in force, also places too many restrictions on companies. It prevents the economy from gaining suppliers and customers. Not only large companies, but also simple craftsmen would feel it.
“We have to decide what is important. Of course child labor is bad. Of course the world is better if everyone sticks to our ideas,” emphasized Wansleben. Nevertheless, the question now is: “What do we have to do now in order to be able to act now and tomorrow?” The federal government must do everything to ensure that economic activity is possible again. “Now we have to be extremely creative,” emphasized the DIHK managing director.
According to a survey by the DIHK, German companies are still pessimistic about the future. At 35 percent, more than a third of companies expect the situation to worsen in the next twelve months. 14 percent expect improvement. However, 29 percent of companies describe the current business situation as “good” and 22 percent as “bad”. The DIHK predicts a further decline in economic output of 0.5 percent for 2024 and is therefore more pessimistic than the federal government, which expects mini-growth of 0.2 percent.
The German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG), as it is officially called, applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees. Among other things, they must analyze how great the risk is that they will benefit from human rights violations such as forced labor, set up risk management and a complaints mechanism and report publicly on them. In the event of violations within their own business or direct suppliers, the law requires companies to immediately take appropriate remedial action “to prevent, terminate or minimize the extent of the violation.” (dpa)