REACH Regulation Restricts Exports of Made-in-China Toys to the EU      

In the third quarter of 2009, the European Union (EU) issued 130 reports of substandard toy products (including walking chairs) globally, of which 101 involved Chinese toy products, according to the statistics of the Technology Center of Zhuhai Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (ZHTC). (The statistics here about China include Hong Kong and Taiwan, as do all the mentions of China below)
   Nearly 80% of the toys in the EU market are made in China, so toys have become a focus of the EU rapid alert system for non-food consumer products (RAPEX) reports on Chinese products. The RAPEX weekly reports for weeks 38-42 of 2009 reported 54 substandard toys. Forty eight of these were made in China, accounting for 34.9% of the total number of substandard products reported, up nearly 10 percentage points from 25.1% in the third quarter of 2009. The major problem of the reported substandard toys is that their phthalate ester content does not comply with the REACH regulation.
   After an analysis of those RAPEX reports, it is obvious that the excessive content of phthalate ester in China's plastic toys is a major factor preventing many of China's toys from competing in the EU market. Suffocation and harm caused by unreasonable designs or unskilled workmanship are other frequent reasons for Chinese toys to be blocked from the EU market.