Chinese Lighters Anti-dumped by EU

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 25, 2002

Chinese Lighters Anti-dumped by EU

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Non-governmental team to Europe for negotiations

Wenzhou Smoking Set Association has formed a team to Europe, the first of its kind as a non-governmental organization for external negotiations. This is due to the forthcoming CR rule formulated by the EU, which is about to be carried out for restricting the exports of Chinese lighters.

Zhou Dahu, boss of Wenzhou Dahu Lighter Factory, said, "We get the news before the rule makes public. We're going to make efforts to prevent the CR rule from being passed together with the European importers. Our delegation has arrived in Germany."

Chinese lighters to be restricted to sell in Europe

850 million lighters are produced per year in Wenzhou, 500 million of which are exported, accounting for 80 percent of the European market. However, the EU is going to decide the CR rule by vote. Should it be passed by 75 percent votes the rule will enter into force in the coming two or two and half a year.

The gist of the rule is: The lighters with toy-design sold under 2 Euro (about 15 yuan) must be fitted with safety-locks considering the safety of kids when they open them. The sale price for the majority of the lighters exported from China to Europe is under 2 Euro while the lighters made in Europe, Japan and South Korea, all beyond 2 Euro.

Fixing locks as required to raise costs

According to Zhou Dahu, fixing lock will raise costs. The patent right of safety devices is mainly possessed by the US or European countries. That means the enterprises in Wenzhou have to purchase the patent right, otherwise they have to conduct research themselves. As known to all, it takes time to do the research. Moreover, it will cause inconvenience with safety lock fixed. Consumers have to take trouble to open the lighter despite that kids won't be able to find the switch.

To our surprise, lighters without safety locks made in Japan and South Korea are not restricted to sell just because their sell prices are over 2 Euro. Regarding that, EU explained that kids can seldom get them because of their high price and few purchasers.

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