ITA Helps California Companies Avoid Unnecessary Costs of Exporting to Europe
June 21, 2013
(ITA)
The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) worked
with KLA-Tencor Corporation of Milpitas, California and other semiconductor
equipment manufacturers to provide clarity as to whether spare parts for large
machines fall within the scope of the revised European Union Directive on the
restriction of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS
II). ITA’s assistance helped save these companies hundreds of thousands of
dollars in unnecessary costs per year.
Why it Matters
The RoHS II Directive initially did not provide a clear scope statement
regarding spare parts provided in support of large-scale machines. This resulted
in confusion and could have led to inadvertent non-compliance, or excessive
resource allocation to inapplicable regulations, depending on how the Directive
would be interpreted. If the scope of the RoHS II Directive had been deemed to
include spare parts for large-scale machines, semiconductor equipment
manufacturers and other companies in the large machine sector would have had to
expend significant resources to certify spare parts to the Directive’s
requirements. One company, KLA-Tencor, estimated RoHS II compliance costs for
spare parts would have cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. This
additional cost could have reduced U.S. exports of semiconductor equipment
machinery and other large machine sectors to Europe.
The Problem
The RoHS II Directive, which became mandatory in January 2013, was poorly worded
and potentially subject to a narrow interpretation that could have brought
almost all spare parts for large-scale stationary machines or large-scale fixed
installations into scope. If this interpretation had been upheld, all
manufacturers of large-scale machines, which are otherwise excluded from the
scope of RoHS II, would have had to prove that spare parts met the requirements
of RoHS II and thus would have to absorb this incongruous cost of compliance.
(RoHS II, among other restrictions, requires that electrical and electronic
equipment not contain more than a restricted amount of lead, cadmium, hexavalent
chromium and mercury.)
The Solution
ITA’s Market Access and Compliance (MAC) unit helped organize a Commerce-wide
advocacy effort to help persuade the EU RoHS Technical Advisory Committee to
provide a clearly worded interpretation covering the exclusion of spare parts
from RoHS II. The Commission’s Frequently Asked Questions Guide subsequently
clarified the relevant RoHS II provisions to ensure that spare parts for
large-scale machines actually fall outside the scope of the Directive. ITA
provided strategic advice, conferences, and meetings with key European officials
instrumental in RoHS policy development.
Working closely with U.S. companies, ITA creates, expands and defends market
access for U.S. goods and services overseas through the Trade Agreements
Compliance Program. “We promote policy that develops a more favorable business
climate for U.S. companies in global markets; we employ commercial diplomacy to
resolve trade barriers; and we leverage our bilateral and multilateral trade
agreements to ensure our trading partners live up to their commitments so that
our businesses can compete on a level playing field.” - Assistant Secretary for
Market Access and Compliance, Michael C. Camuñez.
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