In late September 2005, the Chinese government notified the World Trade Organization's Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade of its plans to adopt the "Administrative Measures on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products." This legislation is similar to the European Union's Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (2002/95/EC), and has come to be known as "China RoHS."

  While the adoption of such electronics legislation by China does not come as a surprise, the strict regulations implied by the language used in the document and the timeline that the Ministry of Information Industry has indicated for its implementation has become a source of anxiety for those who may be affected by it: those producing products either imported into China or for domestic sale in China - it does not effect Chinese exports.

  The new legislation complements China's Cleaner Production Promotion Law of 2002, which is referenced in the notification to the WTO. The 2002 law cites the promotion of cleaner production and the reduction of pollutants as two of its main objectives, though it does not lay out specific requirements for industry. China RoHS takes the legislation a step further, and actually sets restrictions for certain substances: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers, which are the same six restricted by the EU RoHS Directive. The Chinese regulation leaves the door wide open, however, for the restriction of other substances in the phrasing, "other toxic and harmful substances as specified by the Chinese government."

  The products falling within the scope of China RoHS are described in the draft by the general term "electronic information products." A catalog that will accompany the legislation, which is not yet available and has no set time frame for its release, will define what products are covered by the law and should contain the specific material restrictions.

  Products affected by EU RoHS will be reviewed at four-year intervals; China RoHS will require annual review of its catalog. China RoHS also includes marking requirements different from the EU version. One of those differences is a declaration of the "safe-use life" of the products that fall within the scope of the law. This is understood to mean the period in which no toxic or harmful substances found in the product will leak or mutate. The determination of a product's safe-use period is left up to the manufacturers and importers of the products, though the Ministry of Information Industry has said that it will mandate the labeling of safe-use periods. Other marking requirements include place-of-origin marking; material content; toxic substance content and recyclability marking; and indication of the material content of the packaging. It also requires that electronic products be certified by authorized agencies, and that imports be certified in advance. Another key difference between the two sets of legislation is that at this time, China RoHS includes no exemptions.

  In the Chinese government's notification to the WTO, December 31, 2005 was the target date for adoption of the regulations and July 1, 2006 was the date that it would take effect, the latter being the same effective date of the EU RoHS. This would leave producers only six months to comply with the Chinese law from the adoption date. The Chinese government opened a 60-day comment period upon notification of its intentions to adopt its new legislation, which ran out on November 27, 2005. Its draft legislation was only available from the government in Chinese, however.

  In light of the fact that the companion catalog is not yet ready, it is believed that the enforcement date of the final version will be delayed from July 1, 2006. Word from the Economic Operations Bureau of China's Ministry of Information Industry is that, when China RoHS is passed into law, the only formal requirement will be labeling of hazardous substances removal of hazardous material from affected products will not be required at that time.

[时间：2006-03-17  作者：Marisabel Torres  来源：SIGA]