Importing goods - is it worth it?

[kev67]

The EU loves to boast of how its system is respected all over the world, but it has one fundamental flaw. There is in fact no way of guaranteeing that a product has been properly tested. All too often, not least in China, fraudulent CE marks are slapped on products indiscriminately, reducing the system to a charade. As has been observed, CE all too often now seems to mean no more than "China exempted".


How true the above is!!

[RuralWeb]

Its about time there was a backlash against products made in China as they have killed Made in Britain.

[Duncan Rounding]

I thought duties and surcharges were (are?) supposed to protect local manufacturing but it seems they are only an additional source of government income now.

[pnagames]

duties etc. unfortunately are not able to protect the local products.

because you get the product at 1/2 or even lesser of what would you pay for the equivelant product here then yous till end up buying it cheaper.

the governments apathy towards british SME's is exemplified even more by the VAT loophole.

[RuralWeb]

At end of the day its Uk business's own fault - over the last 10 years they have outsourced all thier suppliers to China etc and UK manufacturing has collapsed. Now the sky is black with crows coming home to roost.

Walmart was once the shining light of the USA but now people are realising that it has killed the US manufacturing base by getting virtually all its products from China.

[wfl]

What comes around goes around.

Once we worried about Japan, then Taiwan followed quickly by Korea and now it is the PRC.

As the expectation of Chinese workers increases (consumer goods, cars, mobile phones etc.) they will cost more.

Last week it was reported that the manufacturer of "Hoover" and "Vax" was contemplating pulling out of China to low cost manufacturing bases closer their markets. In this case they suggested Mexico for the USA or North Africa for Europe. The argument being that the cost of manufacture may be greater but the cost of transportation would be significantly less.

So, as long as they don't put the Severn bridge toll up too much it looks like their may be hope yet

[HairKit]

Safety, EMC & RoHS compliance

All

I work for a well known electronics company in the North of England and deal with safety, EMC and RoHS compliance on a day to day business.

You can self-certify your products as meeting the EMC directive and Low Voltage directives, etc, but in order to do this you need a level of confidence, due diligence, that the products meets the necessary standards applicable to the products you are selling.

It is the responsibility of the person placing the product on the European market or the importer into the EU to ensure the products are compliant. The manufacturer might CE mark the product phyically, but the importer is the person who writes the declaration of conformity declaring that the product meets the requirements.

So before you go doing this, you need to be confident that the EMC reports and safety reports that you get from the manufacturer are legitimate. If not, then I'd get it tested by TRL, KTL, TUV, Intertek/BEAB etc, etc to verify their claims, but it can be costly.

Don't just put your name to something without evidence to back it up because the responsibility lies with the importer/person who places the products on the EU market.

Ask the manufacturer for copies of the test reports and certificates. Don't just accept their word or declaration of conformity.

Carlos.