AAFA Issued The 18Th Version Of The List Of Restricted Substances: Regulate The Footwear And Clothing Industry

The reporter learned from Jiangsu Inspection and Quarantine Department that the American Apparel and Footwear Association (AAFA) recently released the 18th version of the list of restricted substances, covering the chemicals or substances banned or restricted in the world's finished home textile, clothing and footwear products.

Compared with the 17th edition, the version released this time focuses on aromatic amine, asbestos, dioxin and furan, disperse dyes, fluorinated greenhouse gases, heavy metals, organic tin Biocide 、 Phthalate The requirements for solvents, etc. have not changed, and only a new substance benzo [def] pyrene (benzo [a] pyrene), CAS No. 50-32-8, has been added to the list of substances with reporting requirements in Appendix 1.

This substance was added to the list of substances of high concern (SVHC) of the European Union on June 20, 2016. Therefore, when the mass percentage of benzo [a] pyrene in the article exceeds 0.1%, and the total trade volume exceeds 1 ton per year, the manufacturer or importer needs to notify ECHA. At present, the SVHC list of EU REACH regulations has been updated to 173 items.

Wujiang has the largest spinning and weaving base in China, with more than 2500 various production enterprises, an annual output of 13 billion meters of various textiles, and a spinning capacity of 4 million tons. The United States is a major exporter of Wujiang textiles. The release of this requirement has a great impact on the textile enterprises in Wujiang area and covers a wide range of areas.

Jiangsu Wujiang inspection and quarantine experts remind that for textile, clothing and footwear enterprises and relevant industry associations, National and international laws and regulations are constantly updated and changed, understand various national and international laws and regulations on various controlled substances and their limits in finished home textile, clothing and footwear products, grasp new changes and requirements in a timely manner, respond well in advance, control key links, make products meet the requirements of trading countries, and ensure that Quality safety To avoid unnecessary losses.

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In 2016, the EU REPAX system released 55 notifications of footwear products, a year-on-year decrease of 12.7%, of which 24 were Chinese products, accounting for 43.64%, a year-on-year decrease of 21.44 percentage points, creating the lowest proportion of notifications of footwear products to China since the operation of the EU RAPEX system.

From the reason of being notified, there are three kinds of risks: chemical risk, suffocation risk and trauma risk. There were 27 cases of chemical risk, accounting for 49.09%, including 24 cases of hexavalent chromium, 3 cases of dimethyl fumarate; The risk of asphyxia was 27 cases (49.09%), mainly due to the small parts easy to fall off in children's shoes; There was 1 case of injury risk, which was due to insufficient impact resistance of safety shoes.

From the perspective of the notified countries, there are 11 countries, with a year-on-year growth of 57.14. Compared with last year, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Ireland and Slovenia were five new countries, and the United Kingdom was one less country. Spain's reporting volume dropped significantly, but it is still the country with the most footwear reporting volume. The top three countries with the highest reporting volume are Spain, Hungary and Germany.

From the perspective of the reported products, 34 children's shoes were reported in 2016, accounting for 61.82% of the total number of reported products. The reason was that small parts of children's shoes were easy to fall off, which was easy to cause suffocation and hexavalent chromium exceeded the standard, and caused allergy; 17 adult shoes, accounting for 30.91%; There were 4 cases of safety shoes, accounting for 7.27%.

From the perspective of the origin of the notified products, 44 of the 55 notified products in 2016 were from 13 countries or regions, of which 24 were from China, accounting for 54.55% of the identified sources on a year-on-year basis; 4 cases in India, accounting for 9.09%; 3 cases in Turkey, accounting for 6.82%; Spain, Albania and Portugal each had 2 cases, accounting for 4.55%; Germany, Brazil, Colombia, Pakistan, South Korea, Slovenia and Vietnam each have 1 case, accounting for 2.27%. The origin of another 11 cases is unknown.

From the perspective of notification measures, they can be divided into official public measures and economic measures. Among them, there were 43 cases of official public measures, accounting for 78.18%, up about 5 percentage points year on year, including user recall, 16 cases of product delisting, 14 cases of prohibited entry, 12 cases of product delisting and 1 case of prohibited sales; 12 cases of economic measures, including informing consumers of risks, withdrawing products from the market, recalling users and others.

To sum up, the EU's footwear product notification project in 2016 still focused on hexavalent chromium and small parts of children's shoes, reflecting that the focus of attention of EU officials has been very unified, and enterprises should pay high attention. However, the notification of dimethyl fumarate has decreased significantly since 2011, and it reappeared again in 2016 after zero notification in 2015, which cannot be taken lightly; Children's shoes are still the focus of EU notification; Although the sources of EU footwear notification tend to be diversified, and the proportion of Chinese origin has decreased compared with previous years, it is still the "worst hit area" of footwear notification; At the same time, the EU has taken tough measures on footwear notification in the region, and the risk of being refused entry is higher. Spain, Finland, Bulgaria, Italy and other countries have taken strict measures to deal with the notified products. Spain, in particular, has a large proportion of customs spot checks in the import process. Once found unqualified, it will directly refuse entry; Germany, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France and Ireland generally take voluntary measures.

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