When the "one belt and one way" strategy brings opportunities to China's industrial development, the number of trade barriers announced by some countries along the border to China's LED lighting products (TBT) is also increasing.
According to the WTO/TBT advisory and research center of Guangdong Province, in recent years, the mandatory standards for LED products have been updated frequently in international trade, and the market access conditions are becoming more and more severe. The number of TBT notifications has increased, causing the loss of LED enterprises in China. In 2014 alone, the number of LED products exported to the US was 36 million 850 thousand, with a value of US $1 billion 342 million.
As the most concentrated area of the LED lighting industry in China, Guangdong's LED industry has increased from 3000 in 2013 to more than 4000, bringing about 3 million jobs and about 350000000000 yuan in output value. Last year, the export volume of LED products in the province was 93 billion 875 million yuan, an increase of 35.16% over the same period last year, accounting for 35.53% of the total exports of LED products in the country, and the export volume ranks first in the country. The continuous increase of TBT will not only increase the export cost of Guangdong LED products, but also greatly weaken its market competitiveness.
Since 2013, the WTO/TBT advisory and research center of Guangdong has issued 53 organizational reviews on LED products, which are mostly product safety, energy efficiency and label identification. The key countries are Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the United States, Kenya, Chile and 17 other countries. The center has successfully reviewed the US LED lamp test procedures, the EU Directive on directive lights, LED lighting and related equipment ecological design requirements, and a series of bulletin on technical barriers to the export of LED industry in China. It has safeguarded the vital interests of the exporters of LED lamps and lanterns.
Last year, our country exported LED lighting products to 64 countries along the "one belt and one road". Its output value reached 6 billion 744 million US dollars, an increase of 211.84% over the same period last year, accounting for 36.81% of the total export volume of China's LED lighting products. According to the analysis of industrial development and export data, the Guangdong WTO/TBT consulting and Consulting Center believes that under the "one belt and one way" policy investment environment, Guangdong's LED industry seize business opportunities, while developing new markets, it also faces 3 prominent characteristics of international trade barriers, which should be highly valued.
First, the number of member states of the developing countries along the belt and road continues to increase.
Such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other developing countries, and even Kenya, Uganda and other least developed countries have also issued a series of LED product bulletins in recent years. Some countries' access standards for LED products directly copy the most advanced indicators in Europe and America, resulting in the increase of Guangdong's LED products exported to developing countries, which restricts the continuous expansion of Guangdong's LED products in the "one belt and one road" emerging market share.
Two, LED products are frequently recalled in the European and American markets.
Energy efficiency and low carbon requirements have become a new trend in the development of TBT measures in Europe and America. Only in 2014, the EU RAPEX (EU non food rapid alert system) and the US CPSC (US Consumer Safety Committee) recalled the LED lighting equipment and LED LCD display of over 22 pieces of LED products from China products, which were over 30 million. It is inconsistent with EU EN60598 energy saving standard, low voltage directive and American energy efficiency requirements. LED products are frequently recalled, reducing the recognition of foreign consumers to China's LED products.
Three, export inspection and certification is becoming more and more complicated.
The technical barriers to trade of LED enterprises in the whole province mainly include product quality and safety standards, certification requirements, green environmental protection requirements, packaging labels or identification requirements. In addition, the export LED products need to be certified by CE, UL, VDE, FCC, SASO and other institutions. The EU and the United States improve their energy efficiency indicators and set up more complicated inspection procedures, which increase the certification cost of LED products, and weaken the price competitiveness of LED products in Guangdong.
According to the above three characteristics of LED products encountered in technical barriers, the WTO/TBT advisory and research center of Guangdong province puts forward 4 suggestions on how to make Guangdong solve the problem of trade barriers under the background of "one belt and one road".
First, increase the support for early warning of LED product quality risk.
We should give full play to the information processing and early warning functions of the existing provincial WTO/TBT early warning information platform. By constructing the professional early warning sub platform of LED industry, we will promptly classify and rapidly handle the relevant laws, standards, and certification dynamics of the LED industry chain, and launch point to point push to form an early warning of LED export product quality. Long term working mechanism for risk analysis.
The two is to establish LED technical trade measures alliance.
The professional TBT should take the lead, organize technical institutions, scientific research institutions and enterprises, establish alliances to deal with LED technical trade measures, and carry out tracking, evaluation and Research on the LED technical trade measures organizations in key trade markets of the United States, the European Union, Brazil, Chile and Korea, and make full use of the WTO/TBT agreement. Coordination mechanism to grasp and eliminate the possible LED technical barriers to trade in time.
Three is to guide enterprises to actively participate in international standardization work.
We should strengthen the cultivation, guidance and support for LED enterprises and industry organizations to participate in international standardization work, and guide enterprises to pay close attention to the revision of LED standards and technical regulations, especially in developed countries, actively adopt international standards or advanced foreign standards, and take the initiative to participate in relevant international and foreign laws and regulations, standards revision and other related work. To grasp the initiative of LED in international trade.
The four is to encourage enterprises to embrace LED technology trade barriers together.
We should give full play to the bridge role of Guangdong in dealing with the technical barriers to trade. We should carry out enterprise research and technical barrier knowledge training through joint LED related industry associations, standard alliances, etc., so as to fully understand the demands of export enterprises and guide enterprises to join together to break the walls. At the same time, we should actively cooperate with the government, enterprises, industry organizations and technical institutions to establish joint coping mechanisms and strive to win the LED international trade technology war.
It is reported that the WTO/TBT advisory and research center of Guangdong province will give full play to and rely on the strength of institutions such as WTO/TBT notifications, trade associations and other institutions, strengthen the early warning analysis of the quality of export products, provide guidance and services for LED export enterprises, and establish LED product recall data collection, translation, analysis, notification and training. A long-term working mechanism for risk analysis and early warning of product quality.
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