G/TBT/W/503  
 
19 April 2018  
(18-2448) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
 CHINA — NATIONAL STANDARDS O N LIMITS OF VOLATILE   
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS FO R FURNITURE  
STATEMENT BY THE EUR OPEAN UNION TO THE C OMMITTEE ON TECHNICA L BARRIERS TO TRADE  
21 AND 22 MARCH 2018  
The following communication, dated 16 April 2018, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the European Union . 
 
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1.  The E uropean Union is obliged to raise this issue again since intervening bilateral exchanges 
with the Chinese authorities, have not resolved the pr oblems.  We would like to refer to our 
previous statements in the Committee concerning these notifications.  
2.  The EU continues to be concerned about the deviation of the proposed mandatory standards 
from the existing international ISO standards. The EU would  like to draw China's attention to the 
fact that i n case the use of such new standards became mandatory, products currently assessed 
on the basis of international standards would have to be subject to other specific tests for the 
Chinese market only.  
3.  The EU continues to doubt whether the proposed tests are relevant and replicable in particular 
as concerns the presence of harmful elements – the TVOC parameter (Total Volatile Organic 
Compounds) . - The EU continues to understand that the Total Volatile Organi c Compounds (TVOC) 
requirements will be applied on a voluntary basis. The EU once more would like to ask China to 
confirm which other parts of the standard would remain voluntary and which would become 
mandatory. For instance, whether the TVOC limits or th e testing method set out in the standards 
and their annexes will be considered as voluntary.  
4.  The EU would also like to know whether a differentiation between voluntary and mandatory 
requirements will apply to all three notified draft standards and, if so,  how this would apply, e.g. 
what limits and/or other requirements are included in the notified drafts (e.g. formaldehyde 
emissions).  
5.  At previous Committee meetings, China has indicated that deviations from international 
standards were justified by realisti c conditions of use. It is our understanding that the notified 
standards are still under development  as they were not published yet . The EU would like to repeat 
its request  for a progress report on their development to be provide d by China  as soon as possible, 
together with the likely date of their entry into force , as well as  with an a  priori impact assessment 
of the: health, environment , and/or economic consequences of the standards.  The EU would also 
ask China to provided information , including the implementation timetable,  on its standardization 
reform planned  in the near future . 
6.  The EU would like to encourage the Chinese authorities to accept equivalent international 
standards, in particular the ISO standards, for the time of the develo pment of new national 
standards, for the product categories covered by the notified drafts.  G/TBT/W/503  
 
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  7.  Last year t he EU expressed its readiness to hold technical discussions in Brussels on these 
issues , as proposed by China in June 2017.  The EU would like to reitera te its request to  China to 
designate the contact point for the organisation of such a meeting.   
 
 
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