(continued
from imex.com)
STORY:
091209-EURC
by
Bob
Vereen, Worldwide
DIY Council
EU
REGULATORY CHALLENGES
(A
digest of a session conducted by the
US Commercial Service of Brussels
during an exporting seminar at Purdue
University)
Although
the European Union consists of 500
million consumers making it economically
the largest economy in the world with
only one set of rules instead of 27,
unfortunately, that one set of rules
is not in operation all the time.
The challenge is that the EU is a
fragmented single market!
EU countries had a tradition of top-down
regulation, with decision-making processes
often complex and closed. EU's old
approach was directives-no CE mark
but mandatory standards. Its new approach
is CE marking and voluntary standards.
New EU directives apply to more than
25 products or product families and
contain "essential requirements"
related to safety, health and/or the
environment, which would make many
of them applicable to products made
by Council members.
Products should bear a CE mark, because
without it, they are subject to questions
by buyers. CE marking is a safety
mark, not a quality mark. It is, in
effect, an EU-wide "passport"
for market access for those 25 products
or categories. Among the products
or categories requiring CE marking
are construction products and low
voltage items.
Furthermore,
from Jan. 1, 2010, the EU will allow
only metric measurement units. Declared
US policy says that the metric system
of measurement is the preferred system
but does not say it is mandatory.
Since 1980 when the EU made metric
units the only legal units of measure,
there have been extensions, which
now end 12/31/2009. Thereafter, US
customary units will be illegal in
the EU. This applies to labels, packaging,
advertising, catalogs, technical manuals,
user instructions, etc.
What makes this complex is that the
U.S. Fair Labeling & Packaging
Act (FLPA) requires that consumer
package labels be dual, both metric
and customary, as now in force, FLPA
does NOT allow metric-only labels.
However, state laws are different,
and 49 of our 50 states DO allow metric-only
labels.
The Transatlantic Economic Council
is the current driving force behind
the CSEU standards program. There
are many standards-related TEC items
such as electric equipment, bio fuels
and the metric labeling. If anyone
feels that there are market access
barriers developing, one can report
barriers to: www.tcc.export.gov
The US government has developed an
8-step CE marketing guide and can
provide answers to detailed certification/standards
questions.
Members now using RFID or thinking
about it should know that privacy
is very important in Europe, and data
protection is a very hot topic. If
you are shipping data electronically,
you should check out: www.export.gov/safeharbor/
The WEEE Directive will apply to some
members because it aims to limit the
landfilling of electrical waste. Producers
must pay for the collection and recycling
of EEE.
The most far-reaching directive of
all is REACH, which deals with chemical
substances, and you can be affected
if you are producing or using chemicals
and exporting to Europe. While non-EU
companies do not have direct obligations
under REACH, your importer is REACH-obligated
and you need to be sure your products
comply. For more information about
REACH, go to: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm
or http://reach.jrc.it/navigator_en.htm
Registration for REACH began June
1 and is to end Dec. 1 of this year,
but does allow for some extended registration
deadlines. Foreign firms, including
US, cannot pre-register or register
directly.
Because of this topic's complexity,
non-EU companies may appoint an Only
Representative to fulfill the obligations
of their EU importer. For more information
on this topic, go to: http://reach.jrc.it/docs/guidance_document/registration_en.htm
Other government resources are:
www.buyusa.gov/europeanunion
www.trade.gov
www.useu.be
You can learn much more about these
topics by going to:
www.buyusa.gov/northcarolina.bensky.ppt
, which leads you to a Power Point
presentation
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