China RoHS Is Serious Business: A Discussion of China RoHS and a Road Map for Compliance

November 2007
Citation:
37
ELR 10827
Issue
11
Author
Anne Davidson, Joe Johnson, and Ken Rivlin

Editors' Summary: Moving beyond the command-and-control product regulation of the past, China is shifting focus to product management as an alternate means to address health and safety, waste management, and environmental contamination. China's restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances (RoHS), a new legal framework designed to govern product manufacture, use, and end-of-life issues, presents a new compliance challenge for industry all over the world and at all levels of the supply chain. In this Article, Anne Davidson, Joe Johnson, and Ken Rivlin summarize China RoHS and recent related regulatory developments, highlight some similarities and distinctions between China RoHS and a comparable system now in place in the European Union, and offer a road map outlining how industry might begin to understand this complicated new regime.

Anne Davidson is an independent consultant with Davidson Policy Strategies. She was formerly policy counsel at Solectron Corporation, a multinational electronics manufacturing services company. Joe Johnson is Senior Manager of Legal & Regulatory Affairs at Cisco Systems, Inc. Ken Rivlin is a partner at Allen & Overy L.L.P., where he heads the firm's U.S. environmental and regulatory law group.
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