. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/ITA/26 
21 December 2012  
 (12-7052) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  ITALY  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  Ministero dello sviluppo economico  
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
Ministry for Economic Development  
Department for Enterprise and Internationalization  General Directorate for Market, Competiti on, Consumer, Vigilance and Technical 
Standardization Division XVIII - Technical standardization    
00187 Rome I - Via Sallustiana, 53   
Tel.:  ++39 06 4705.5430 Fax:  ++39 06 48.21.702;  Email: tbt.Italia@mise.gov.it    vincenzo.correggia@mise.gov.it     
European Commission TBT Enquiry Point  mailto:ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Leather, hide and fur and 
items manufactured from leather, hide or fur. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Ministerial decree 
concerning: "Leather, hide and fur and items manufactured from leather, hide or fur" 
(3 pages in Italian). G/TBT/N/ITA/26 
Page 2  
 
   
6. Description of content:  The draft law consists of 5 articles:  
- Article 1 reserves the use of the terms "lea ther", "hide" and "fur" to products obtained 
from the processing of animal spoils and ar ticles manufactured using such products 
and provides for the adoption of a Decree of the Ministry of Economic Development 
for laying down technical specifications  regarding products obtained through the 
mechanical or chemical processing of leat her fibres for which the use of the above 
terms is prohibited; 
- Article 2 states that all manufacturing of the products in question must comply with 
the regulations regarding the protection of consumer health, workers' rights and the environment; that companies must demonstr ate their fulfilment of the consequent 
obligations through certification of thei r organisation, management processing 
models by accredited third party bodies; a nd it allows the most representative 
consumer, manufacturer and wo rker associations to form  consortia in order to 
guarantee the geographic or igin, nature and quality of such products;  
- Article 3 prohibits the sale of products different from those indicated in Article 1 
using the terms "leather", "h ide" and "fur" or their deri vatives and synonyms; it also 
states that products manufactured in fore ign countries which carry the Italian terms 
"cuoio" (leather) "pelle" (hide) and "pellicc ia" (fur) must be labelled giving indication 
of their country of origin; 
- Article 4 lays down penalties for violati on of the law and allows for the affected 
industry associations to adopt measur es in protection of the provisions; 
- Article 5 repeals Law No  1112 of 16 December 1966. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Enactment of the notified law is deemed necessa ry in order to adjust regulations concerning 
the manufacturing and sale of leather, hide  and fur products to i ndustry progress, with 
particular focus on significant as pects including protecting the health, safety and rights of 
production workers and consumers and environmental protection.  
8. Relevant documents:   References to basic texts: Law No 1112 of 16 December 1966   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    March 2013   
10. Final date for comments:  1 March 2013 
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:  - See box 2 
Text on line at:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/index_it.htm  
http://members.wto.org/crna ttachments/2012/tbt/ITA/12_4902_00_x.pdf