3 Restrictive packaging requirements related to EU regulations

3.1 Understanding the rules of the market economy-avoiding business risks

Export commodities need packaging, and packaging materials and auxiliary materials are very extensive. Export commodity packaging involves various products and market access systems. It is often very difficult to understand the packaging clauses and restrictive measures in all regulations of the importing country. Moreover, with the development of science and technology and people's further understanding of the material world, new requirements will be changed or put forward. Chinese enterprises should coordinate and communicate with importers (the persons responsible for placing products on the market), and expect to obtain complete product information and packaging requirements from the importing country to avoid operating risks.

In the EU's New Method Directive, the legal responsibilities of different economic entities in business activities are clearly stipulated:

Manufacturer

The manufacturer refers to the person responsible for designing and producing products for their own benefit, and placing the products on the European Community market.

It is the manufacturer's responsibility to ensure that the products to be put on the European Community market are designed, produced, and subjected to conformity assessment in accordance with the basic requirements of the directives.

Manufacturers can use finished products and prefabricated parts for production, or they can subcontract. No matter what method is used, the manufacturer must maintain a comprehensive monitoring of the product in order to be able to be responsible for the product.

Importer (the person responsible for putting the product on the market)

A natural or legal person who introduces the product from a third country to the EU market and is stationed in the European Community.

If the manufacturer is not resident in the EU and the importer does not have an authorized agent in the EU, the importer must ensure that it can provide the market supervision authority with the necessary product information.

In some cases, the natural or legal person who imports the product into the EU should take the responsibility on behalf of the manufacturer.

The European Community has been more than half a century since its inception. Many regulations have been deposited, some have been covered, and some are still in use. Even in the EU's harmonized standards, such warnings often appear:

WARNING: Other requirements and other EU Directives may be applicable to the product(s) falling within the scope of this standard.

3.2 Basic requirements based on life safety-restrictions on the use of packaging materials

Since the middle of the last century (the end of World War II), European countries, like the United States, Japan and other countries, have never stopped researching unknown pathologies such as cancers and conducting investigations on substances (mutagenes) that may cause disease. Packaging materials and packaging auxiliary materials such as adhesives, printing inks, paints and dyes are regarded as suspicious objects. Various research reports in different forms or restrictive requirements can be found on the official publications or websites of the European Union.