China-EU conference to discuss RoHS

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the European Commission are holding a conference in Beijing on December 4 and 5 to exchange views on restricting the use of hazardous substances in electronics and electrical products to avoid possible barriers to bilateral trade.

The EU's two directives on electronic waste and electrical equipment (WEEE) and the restricted use of hazardous substances (RoHS), have been effective since August 2005 and July 2006 respectively. Seven Chinese ministries have worked together to formulate Measures for the Administration of Pollution Control for Electronic Information Products, the Chinese RoHS, which will be enforced from March 2007.

Although Europe and China have the same goals regarding the six substances that have been designated as hazardous, they disagree on how to achieve them.

"There is a great gap particularly in terms of labeling, the use of recyclable materials and compulsory certification," said Ms. Chai Xiaolin, deputy director-general of the WTO Department of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, at the conference.

A report has been compiled by the British Standards Institution and China's Electronics Standardization Institute with the assistance of the EU. They have concluded that the EU directive and the Chinese rules are based on different processes. For example, there is no compulsory certification or labeling requirements in the EU directive, unlike the Chinese regulations.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Mr. Miguel Ceballos Baron, head of the Trade and Economics Section of the EC Delegation to China, noted that ˇ°disparities could have detrimental effects on trade between Europe and China because of the uncertainty and unnecessary compliance costs that it could create for business."

According to Mr. Baron, EU-China trade in electrical and electronic equipment was valued at 52.5 billion euros in 2005, nearly 50 percent more than in 2003. Exports of those products accounted for 20 percent of the EU's total exports to China and 40 percent of China's total exports to the EU.

Between January and October this year, China-EU trade was valued at US$218.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 24.2 percent and making up 15.1 percent of China's total foreign trade. Mr. Liu Meikun, Vice President of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, announced that some $US6 million worth of Chinese exports to the EU in the first ten months of the year had faced RoHS directives.

Mr. Liu said most Chinese enterprises exposed to the EU's RoHS directives already had a basic understanding of the directives and large businesses have done a good job in complying. However, he is quite concerned about medium and small-sized enterprises (SMEs). He urged Chinese companies to incorporate RoHs into their long-term blueprints.

Another challenge for Chinese enterprises is the difficulty in complying with the different standards of various EU members. The directive should be reflected in the legislation of each EU member country. Mr. Liu highlighted the lack of consistency within the EU in terms of market supervision, sampling and testing when it comes to the implementation of the regulations.

China has promulgated three standards to facilitate the enforcement of its own RoHS in November. It is working on a catalogue that specifies which products will fall under mandatory compliance.

The report mentioned proposes a convergence of the restrictions imposed by China and the EU to reduce confusion. The adoption of international standards is fundamental. It also suggests that test results and certifications be recognized by bothto reduce technical barriers.

By People's Daily Online