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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Brand Hong Kong - Asia world city
MY COLOUR

Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

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

Ref : EIC 413/2

19 December 2007

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 520/2007

Brazil : (I) Compulsory Testing and Licensing Requirements for Imports of Toys
(II) Requirements for Toxicological Testing of Toys

The Brazilian Government has introduced certain compulsory testing and licensing requirements on imports of toys over the past few months. Moreover, Brazil is also going to introduce certain additional requirements for toxicological testing of toys marketed in the country.

DETAILS

(I) Compulsory Testing and Licensing Requirements

  1.  

  2. Effective from 27 August 2007, the Brazilian Government requires all imported toys to be certified in accordance with "System 7" within the scope of the MERCOSUR 1Toy Safety Technical Regulations. Testing shall be performed by a certification body accredited by the Institute of Metrology, Standardisation and Industrial Quality (INMETRO) and the tests performed by overseas laboratories are not accepted. Under "System 7", samples of every lot of toy imports for commercialization within the country are required to be tested to ensure compliance with the safety regulations. After the certification body has conducted tests, documentation analysis and lot identification, a certificate will be issued for each lot of goods tested.

  1. In relation to the testing requirements, INMETRO issued a Ministerial Act, which entered into effect on 7 November 2007, establishing certain import licensing requirements on toys. Brazilian importers are required to submit a request for import licence through the Integrated System for International Trade (known as SISCOMEX) between the dates of exportation and customs clearance of the goods. Specifically, a certification agreement should be signed between the importer and the certification body accredited by INMETRO and the number of the agreement must be provided in the "supplementary information" section of the import licence request. In addition, the importer is also required to sign on a letter to prove its acceptance of the "System 7" certification scheme. Import licence will be granted upon presentation of a certificate of compliance attesting that the required testing and certification has been performed by the accredited certification body.

  2. The Ministerial Acts establishing the above requirements can be downloaded from the following websites for reference :
    http://www.inmetro.gov.br/rtac/pdf/RTAC001184.pdf
    http://www.inmetro.gov.br/rtac/pdf/RTAC001209.pdf

(II) Additional Requirements for Toxicological Testing

  1. The Brazilian Government issued a Ministerial Act on 27 September 2007 establishing additional requirements for the toxicological testing of toys, including (i) toys with components in the form of powder, paste, gel and/or liquid which must be tested in accordance with certain international guidelines; and (ii) hazardous substances, such as metallic mercury, asbestos, acids and strong bases, ammonium nitrate and lithium hydroxide, which should not be used as materials and components for toys. In addition, the Ministerial Act establishes a ban on toys containing more than trace levels of phthalates. Phthalates are a class of chemicals used in polyvinyl chloride plastics to improve flexibility. Specifically, toys made from vinyl plastics must not contain di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) in concentrations exceeding 0.1%. Toys intended for use by children under three years of age must not contain the abovementioned phthalates as well as diisononyl phthalate (DINP), diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP) and di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP) in concentrations exceeding 0.1%. Toys made with vinyl plastics must conform to the testing methodology which includes a chromatographic analysis of the plastic material used.

  2. The requirements will enter into force on 29 March 2008. The relevant Ministerial Act can be downloaded from the following website for reference :
    http://www.inmetro.gov.br/rtac/pdf/RTAC001208.pdf

 

ENQUIRIES

 

  1. For detailed requirements and implementation of the Brazilian measures on toys, traders are strongly advised to consult their importers in Brazil. For enquiries about the content of this circular, please contact Miss S Y TANG at telephone number 2398 5405.

Yours faithfully,


(Miss WONG Ying)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

1Southern Common Market