Textile And Leather Products Export Meets EU Technical Barriers

The textile and garment industry, which is already in the severe winter, is again encountering technical barriers from the European Union.

Reporters learned from the relevant departments, the EU Directive on the sale and use of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) (PFOS directive) will come into effect on June 27th.

The directive stipulates that the PFOS content of the finished products sold in the EU market should not exceed 0.005% of the total quality.

Our textile and leather products export enterprises will be affected.

PFOS is the main active ingredient of antifouling agent for textile and leather products. It has high bioaccumulation and many kinds of toxicity. Its pollution is attracting more and more attention.

Textile and leather are Jiaxing's traditional dominant industries, and also one of Jiaxing's main export products. The implementation of this directive will make the textile exporters greatly affected by the appreciation of the renminbi.

It is understood that at present, PFOS is an ideal substitute in the world, but the textile auxiliaries that can fully comply with EU's PFOS control standards have not been developed domestically.

The Municipal Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau suggests that relevant export enterprises should step up the selection, test and application of alternative products, so as to reduce the losses caused by the implementation of instructions.