. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/334 
17 June 2010  
 (10-3287) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN UNION
  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
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 :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/
  
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 applicab le, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Use of cadmium in 
PVC, in brazing fillers and in jewellery.       
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006  of the European Parliament and of the 
Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 
(REACH) as regards Annex XVII (Cadmium) (7 pages, in English).     
6. Description of content:  The draft Commission Regulation is an amendment of an existing 
restriction on Cadmium in Annex XVII to REACH. It restricts the use of cadmium in PVC, in brazing fillers and in jewellery.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable: 
The objective is to reduce exposure to cadmium  for humans and the environment and more 
specifically to:  
• Reduce exposure to cadmium from brazing activity for professional users and for do-it-
yourself (DIY) consumers; 
• Reduce exposure from jewellery fo r persons wearing jewellery; 
• Reduce the release of cadmium into the environment resulting from plastic articles 
available on the EU market and support the phasing out of cadmium used as stabilisers in new PVC; 
• Allow the use of recovered PVC in some c onstruction products in order to avoid PVC 
being discarded in landfills or incinerated causing release of carbon dioxide and cadmium into the environment.   G/TBT/N/EEC/334 
Page 2  
 
  8. Relevant documents:   Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:396:SOM:EN:HTML
 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    Jan 2011  
July 2011 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry po int [  ], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 
E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu The text is available on the EU-TBT Website :  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
  
And can also be downloaded here: 
http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2010/tbt/eec/10_2396_00_e.pdf