By ZHONG HUI and GUO MENGJIE
Some enterprises in Zhejiang are facing growing pressure from the recent standards on toy safety set by the European Union and the United States.
As the US’ regulations have become increasingly strict on limiting lead content in children’s toys, many Zhejiang toy export enterprises have faced many challenges, along with increasing labor and raw material costs.
“It is hard for Zhejiang toy enterprises to grapple with the new regulations constantly issued by European and American countries,” said Lou Qijin, vice-president of the Yiwu Toy Industry Association.
Since 2009, the US has reduced the lead content in children’s toys three times. According to new regulations, the maximum amount of lead content has decreased from 300PPM to 100PPM. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission warned American consumers of those toys with large surface coating.
The EU’s latest change in standards is regarded as the harshest change in the recent spate of changing restrictions on toy safety, as it restricted the number of heavy metals from 19 to 8, and limited the use of 66 allergic spices.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand have also released new standards on lead content in children’s toys.
“It’s understandable that they want to make children’s toys safe, but the standard should be scientific and reasonable,” said Lou, adding that the US standards on lead content in children’s toys were too strict and should be based on solubility.
The current standard in China was carried out in October 2004, and some of its specifications equal previous European and American standards.
The new regulations are expected to increase labor costs and push up prices of raw materials for Zhejiang toy enterprises.
As a traditional industry of Yunhe county in Lishui city, a number of wooden toys are exported to Europe and the US every year. A manager from Yunhe Tongzhi Toy Company said that according to US standards, Chinese enterprises should greatly improve many aspects, such as production environment, equipment and process engineering. He said it is difficult for small enterprises to bear these costs.
The new regulations also put more pressure on Guangdong enterprises because they have to monitor the lead content in textile products, wigs and plastic synthetic products because of their complex production technologies.
After decades of development, the Chinese toy industry has expanded. But many toy enterprises focus on manufacturing and processing goods of low value.
“Because of augmenting costs, we cannot immediately increase the prices to maintain profits because of market competition. If the standards continue to rise, we may consider giving up this business,” said Jin Dong, the head of a small toy enterprise in Guangdong.
In order to avoid the risk brought by European and American regulations, more Yiwu toy enterprises have shifted their export areas to focus on Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.
