To make sure your products comply with European safety regulations, the solution is to use a third-party company to carry out the laboratory tests.
Testing is crucial when importing items from China, but you also need to know when the time is right to test your products and how you should handle a failed test.
To be legally imported into the European Union, many products such as furniture, clothing or plastics must comply with REACH.
What is REACH?
REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) is a European Union regulation that regulates the production, import and sale of chemicals or finished products that contain chemicals. We are therefore talking about most of the products on the market.
As with the EC regulation, the same rule applies to the REACH regulation: when importing goods from a non-European country, the responsibility for the conformity of the goods lies exclusively with the importer. I repeat, the responsibility – both civil and criminal – does not fall on the Chinese supplier but on the importer.
The purpose of REACH legislation is to limit citizens’ exposure to certain chemicals (especially those considered toxic). Among the more than a thousand substances regulated by REACH, some are expressly prohibited, while for others there are margins of tolerance and the product is declared compliant if the percentage of a given substance is below a certain threshold.
As an importer, there are two key factors to consider:
a) Whether the product you intend to import must comply with REACH.
b) If the Chinese supplier from whom you intend to purchase the goods has the capacity to produce a compliant product (this is not a detail as many suppliers simply do not have the technology and knowledge to produce a product that complies with European standards).
Which products are regulated by REACH?
Almost any object made of atoms contains chemicals. Does this mean that almost all products are regulated by REACH? No, that’s not exactly the case.
So how do you know if a product must comply with the regulations? One of the best ways to do this is to ask yourself if the product in question exposes you to one or more chemicals. This includes, but is not limited to, the following product categories:
- Food containers
- Rubber products
- Plastic or PVC products
- Toys
- Ink
- Varnish
- Neoprene
- Glue
- Tyres
- Cables
- Pipping
- Furniture
- Fabrics, footwear and leather goods
Another way to understand if a product should be tested for compliance with REACH is to focus on the chemicals contained in the product. In particular, a product that may contain one or more of the following substances should be tested:
- Lead
- Azo dyes (i.e. artificial dyes)
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- Phthalates (or plasticizers)
- Perfluorooctanoic acid (waterproofing)
- Nickel
Keep in mind that the substances regulated by REACH are more than a thousand; Here we have listed only the main ones.
Azo fabrics and dye
In February 2013, the European Union extended the REACH directive to azo dyes, i.e. artificial dyes used to make clothing and fabrics with an intense and bright color.
We are talking about half of the clothes and fabrics that are produced every year. In reality, most of the prohibited azo dyes fell into disuse as early as the early nineties. Here you can find a complete list.
However, Chinese suppliers do not always comply with the REACH regulation.
Many Chinese suppliers have never even heard of “REACH regulation”, imagine if they can make compliant products! No wonder, after all, these are European laws, not Chinese ones. The only way to determine whether a given supplier has the capacity to produce a product that complies with REACH is to have a sample of the product tested at a specialized laboratory.
The first step is to ask the supplier for the results of any test carried out for a past customer. While the only way to be sure that your goods are compliant is to have a sample tested from the goods produced for you, the fact that a supplier has been able to make a compliant product in the past means that it is likely that they will be able to make a compliant product in your case as well.
If, on the other hand, the supplier does not have any test results concerning past productions, we advise you to assume that they have never made a compliant product. This means that by choosing this type of supplier, you run the risk that your goods will not pass the test, i.e. that they will not comply with the REACH regulation. Are you sure you want to take this risk?
REACH Testing
A REACH compliance test requires a sophisticated laboratory and a good dose of scientific knowledge. Most importers and manufacturing companies have neither. It is therefore necessary to contact a specialized laboratory.
If the REACH test is of crucial importance (when importing PVC, for example) then it is essential to have the test carried out before the final balance has been paid and the goods are sent to Italy. Here is a list of the best international laboratories that also have a location in China:
- SGS
- Bureau Veritas
- Asiainspection
- TÜV
How can I use a REACH test report?
A REACH test report lists all the chemicals tested and, among them, the substances present in the sample. If the test is negative, i.e. the tested product does not contain any prohibited substances and is therefore compliant with the regulations, then you should see “ND”, or “not detected”.
Here is an example of a REACH report:
The test report can be used to prove that the imported product complies with REACH, in case customs authorities (or other control bodies), or Amazon require you to prove that your product complies with the regulation.
What happens when the test fails?
You can never be sure that the product will pass the test.
Here is an example of a German customer who was in the process of importing PVC to assemble toys.
The problem with PVC is that it contains several toxic substances; it is therefore essential to have the REACH test carried out to ensure that these substances are within the permitted limits.
The supplier was informed that he would have to make the PVC in compliance with REACH standards. Three weeks later, after production, the test result was received by SGS: the sample had failed the test because, among more than a hundred substances for which it had been tested, it had 1.5% more than a prohibited substance.
A trifle, but you certainly cannot go and negotiate with the European Union. The test had failed and, consequently, this PVC was to be considered illegal in Europe (at least if used to make toys, notoriously one of the most regulated products).
As if that wasn’t enough, the test results came too late, when the goods were already in a container in the middle of the ocean. The fault was not the laboratory, but the customer, who had placed the order too late and, having an urgent need for the goods to comply with the contracts with the wholesalers to whom he sold the toys, had decided to have the load shipped despite the test results not yet arriving.
What saved him was the fact that he had not yet paid the final balance and, moreover, that he had signed a sales agreement that provided for this kind of situation.
Within hours, the customer was able to get a big discount from the supplier, who after all had not complied with the contract as the PVC had not been found to comply with the REACH directive.
In the end, the customer lost nothing since, even if the PVC purchased could not be used to produce toys, it still complied with the directive for industrial use (where the standards are less stringent than in the field of toys).
Watch out because the supplier was not exactly the last to arrive. It is, in my opinion, one of the best PVC suppliers in China. A few weeks later it was discovered that the problem had not been caused by the materials used, but by a machine that leaked a lubricant that contaminated the product during the production phase.
Obviously, a chemical product such as PVC cannot be modified or repaired. If it is not compliant, there is nothing to do. And if you happen to discover the non-conformity of the product after the goods have already left China, you risk losing the entire amount invested!
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