Commercial Information Circulars

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e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : Sub-file(A) to EIC 230/2/11

3 June 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 303/2008

European Union (EU) * : Amendment to the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 170/2007 of 19 April 2007, the European Commission (the Commission) has adopted a Decision to exempt certain uses of lead and cadmium from the requirement of the Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). Details are set out in the Commission Decision 2008/385/EC (the Decision). The Decision can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:136:0009:0010:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2. Commercial Information Circular No. 340/2005 of 24 August 2005 informed the trade that from 1 July 2006, new EEE put on the market should not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls or polybrominated diphenyl ethers over certain prescribed levels. However, certain materials and components containing these hazardous substances can be exempted from the prohibition if the elimination or substitution of these substances is impracticable. Considering that certain uses of lead and cadmium are still unavoidable, the Commission has decided to extend the list of exemption. For details of the newly added exemptions, please refer to the Annex of the Decision.

ENQUIRIES

3. For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

(Cyrus NG)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.