An email was circulated today from FSC Policy and Standards Unit (PSU). It further extends the deadline in for signing of the troublesome self-declaration document included in the FSC Chain of Custody standard (Annex B of PRO-20-001). As of today, the deadline is July 31, 2013 (extended from March 31). The new deadline applies to a special exemption for US and Canadian companies that was issued last fall by letter.
How long can this go on? Nobody seems to know. Is a fix in the works? I have been told that a group of very smart people – including senior corporate council of leading US companies – have been on the verge of a solution at least twice. For some reason they haven’t been able to close a deal. Differences seem to boil down to just a few key words. I guess they will now have a few more months to try again.
For more background on this odd topic, see my posts on the subject below.
Update: 12 July 2013
FSC has, once again, done what it does best. They have deferred a decision on this point again. An email was distributed late last month from the FSC-IC Policy and Standards Unit (PSU), and then re-distributed by FSC-US this morning. It extends the deaden (noted above) to 31 Dec. 2013. I’ll post a copy of the communications in a new post shortly.
Stay tuned…