Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 20 • 11th November 2005

China Highlights Trade Implications of EU Ecodesign Requirements

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At a bilateral US-China meeting on 1 November, China expressed concern that the European Directive 2005/32/EC — a framework to create EU rules for the eco-design requirements of electronic devices — could create market uncertainty and prove to be a technical barrier to trade. At the meeting of the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade the next day, China noted its concerns. Given that the EU Directive is designed to regulate the environmental standards of a given energy-using product, China argues it could create market uncertainty by, for example, requiring different products to meet rigorous standards that could also vary between EU countries and be altered at short notice. The EU, on the other hand, maintains that creating eco-design standards for energy-using products throughout the EU is intended to ensure that the current variation amongst domestic regulations amongst EU members is replaced by a system that does not interfere with intra-EU trade. The initiative aims to integrate aspects of environmental performance into the early design process in order to reduce energy consumption throughout the product lifecycle.

The “framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products” was adopted by European Parliament on 6 July 2005. Actual implementation of the directive is expected in 2007.

The Directive 2005/32/EC is available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/eco_design/directive_2005_32.pdf.

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