Artificial Leather And Technical Barriers That May Arise In Synthetic Leathers

Bilateral relations between the EU and China in 2003

The total reached US $125 billion 220 million, an increase of 44.4% over the previous year, and became China's third largest trading partner.

In May 1st this year, the EU expanded its fifth expansion. This is the largest expansion in its history since its establishment in half a century. Its member countries have expanded from the first 6 countries to 25 countries, covering more than half of Europe, with a total population of over 450 million. This enlargement of the EU has also brought new opportunities to China.

It is expected that the expanded EU will become the largest trading partner of China.

But with the rapid warming of trade relations between China and the EU, facing the EU's desire to set up increasingly strict "green barriers" in bilateral or multilateral trade through legislation, China's

The export enterprises of synthetic leather must keep a clear head, prepare for the rainy day, and prepare for the preparations in a positive way. One important link is to understand and grasp the EU's legislative process and specific legislative contents in a timely manner, and strive to ensure the competitive advantage of export products in international trade.

Technical barriers that may be encountered in synthetic leather and synthetic leathers are:

1) instructions on the prohibition of certain azo dyes.

In September 11, 2002, the European Union formally passed

And the ban on certain azo dyes in leather products, that is, the 2002/61/EC directive, came into effect in September 1, 2003.

The banned azo dyes are azo dyes that produce 22 kinds of carcinogenic aromatic amines under specific conditions (i.e. reducing conditions). The toxicity of these 22 carcinogenic aromatic amines is: (1) the carcinogenic aromatic amines of MAK III A1, 4 kinds of 4- amino biphenyl, benzidine, 4- chloro -2- methyl aniline, and 2- naphthalene amine.

4- two amino anisole, 4-, chloraniline, 4, 4 '- two, amino, two, benzyl, 3, 3, - chloromethyl, phenylene, - methoxy - benzidine, methyl, benzyl, - methyl methyl benzidine, methylene, benzyl, methyl, aniline, 2-, methoxy, methyl, aniline, methyl, aniline, Chloroaniline, benzoic acid, methyl, aniline, methyl, aniline, methoxy aniline, and amino - azobenzene. (2) the carcinogenic aromatic amines of MAK III A2 are 18 kinds of 4- amino -3, 2' - two methazobenzene, 2- amino -4- nitrotoluene, 2.

Their permitted limits on products are 30ppm.

The number of banned azo dyes accounts for about 7 to 8% of the total azo dye varieties in the world, but its output accounts for 54% of all azo dyes produced in the world, and some of them are commonly used dyes.

At present, the amount of dyestuff as a coloring agent for post treatment, especially for spraying, has gradually expanded. For the export of synthetic leather and synthetic leather products to EU, attention should be paid to the choice of dyes without prohibited azo dyes as coloring agents.

2) directive on the complete prohibition of some bromine containing flame retardants

The European Union official communiqu on February 15, 2003 announced that the European Parliament and the European Commission Directive 2003/11/EC announced the complete ban on five bromo two phenyl ether (C12H5Br5O) and eight bromo two phenyl ether (C12H2Br8O) two kinds of flame retardants.

These two kinds of flame retardants are often used in toys, furniture and all kinds of beds and interior decoration fabrics.

The Directive provides for the prohibition of the use and sale of substances or preparations of five bromo two phenyl ether or eight bromo two phenyl ether with a content exceeding 0.1%.

At the same time, any product containing more than 0.1% of the above two substances can not be used or sold in the market, of course, including synthetic leather synthetic leather products.

The directive indicates that the risk assessment of another bromine containing flame retardant - ten brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) is in progress. Once the assessment is completed, a clear conclusion or prohibition or no measures will be given.

This directive will be limited to 0.1%, which does not mean that two substances can be used as long as the content is lower than this limit. This 0.1% is the low limit of GC/MS detection method.

The Directive requires all Member States to pform the ban into the laws, regulations or administrative orders of the cost countries by February 15, 2004 and shall be put into effect no later than August 15, 2004.

Although there is no such requirement in China, the addition of flame retardant artificial leather products to the European Union should be eliminated.

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3) temporary prohibition on the prohibition of PVC two plasticizer of o-phthalate

The interim ban 1999/815/EC issued by the European Commission in December 7, 1999 stipulates that 6 kinds of o-phenyl two formate plasticizers are prohibited in soft PVC materials used for toys or supplies in infants and young children under the age of 3 and below. The ban is valid for 3 months.

At present, the European Commission will issue a new directive every 3 months to extend the validity of the ban.

It is said that the ban will be postponed until the time of the formal injunction.

Because textiles used for infant products often contain soft PVC materials, such as PVC artificial leather, PVC film, PVC accessories, PVC tags, tag and so on.

Therefore, the above prohibition applies to textiles and clothing for infants under 3 years of age, as well as textile materials for infant and young children's products.

4) directive on the prohibition of the use of short chain chlorinated paraffins

According to the results of the twentieth revision of the directive of the European Commission on directive 76/769/EC, Member States should prohibit the sale and use of short chain chlorinated paraffins from January 6, 2004.

Short chain chlorinated paraffins are commonly used as flame retardants for textiles, rubber and plastics, leather treatment agents, plasticizers for varnishes and other coatings, additives for metalworking oils, flame retardants and auxiliary plasticizers of artificial leather.

According to the directive, products containing more than 1% short chain chlorinated paraffins should be prohibited and should be prohibited in metalworking oils or leather fatliquors.

However, before the adoption of the revised directive, the government of the Holland has implemented a broader national law restricting the sale and use of short chain chlorinated paraffins, but the European Commission believes that unless the risk assessment results show that the use of the currently unregulated short chain chlorinated paraffins will cause significant environmental and health hazards, the Commission may accept Holland's request and formulate more stringent laws for Member States.

But for now, it is inevitable for the Holland government to amend its existing laws to meet the requirements of the European Union.

Now the European Union has begun to build technical barriers in the synthetic leather world trade, and has formulated new technical standards for DMF residues in synthetic leather. At present, the German standard is less than 15PPM, but the DMF residue in synthetic leather is usually above 50PPM.

In addition, since July 1st this year, gloves produced by the DMF method are no longer allowed to enter the European Union, and enterprises in the industry should attach great importance to this matter.

In addition, heavy metals such as antimony, chromium, cadmium, lead, mercury and so on are limited. Heavy metals are mainly found in some pigments, dyestuffs and auxiliaries.

Therefore, attention should be paid to the selection of pigments, such as chrome yellow pigments used in synthetic leather, molybdenum and red pigment in heavy metal, and cadmium in orange pigment. Some mordant dyes often contain heavy metals such as chromium, nickel and copper. Heavy metal stibium often comes from three flame retardants two.

In a word, as an exporter, the exporters should not only understand the technical barriers of the EU, but also strictly screen the raw materials used to ensure that the raw materials do not contain prohibited substances, and strictly control the production process so as to avoid bringing prohibited substances into the production process. Only in this way can we smoothly cross the EU's "green barrier" in trade, and increase the export of products to the EU.