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Two EU environmental rules to be upheld in Taiwan

The Industrial Development Bureau under the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday that the ministry will help local manufacturers to cope with difficulties while conforming to two green manufacturing regulations set by the European Union.

The two directives that the EU announced in 2003 require electrical and electronic producers to conform to EU's environmental regulations. They are slated to become effective this year and next.

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive to be effective on Aug. 13 this year stipulates that manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment and products should be responsible for recycling electrical and electronic equipment waste.

Another directive, the Restriction of Hazardous Substance (RoHS), limits six environmentally unfriendly substance including lead, cadmium, mercury and others to be used in making electrical and electronic goods.

RoHS will go into effect in July 2006.

Taiwan exported about US$10 billion of electrical and electronic of equipment and products to the EU every year, government statistics showed.

According to a survey conducted by the bureau, 63 percent of domestic manufacturers have started to prepare for WEEE regulation, while 87 percent of them said they have begun to comply with RoHS.

In order to conform to WEEE, manufacturers of brand-named products need to ensure their products to reach recycle scheme set by the EU when they were discarded.

In general, the procedure will increase as much as 15 percent of costs for manufacturers, Kuo Nien-hsiung (郭年雄), deputy director of the bureau, told a press conference yesterday.

According to the semi-official Industrial Technology Research Institute, the WEEE and RoHS directives could increase costs between 3 percent and 5 percent for branded electrical and electronics product vendors and raise producers' manufacturing costs from 5 percent to 10 percent.

A major obstacle, however, is derived from RoHS, as manufactures still have problems in looking for proper and economic alternative substance to replace lead and others that are restricted, Kuo said.

Large manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技) and Micro-Star International Co (微星科技) have established their green supply-chain, Kuo said, adding that the government is concerned about small and medium-sized companies that have little budget and resources to fit in the regulations.

Kuo suggested that small and medium companies subjected to the directives ask for help from the bureau and participate in seminars and conference on the issue.
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