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Posted on 30/10/2019 in 2019
Video – Swedish FR chemical tax meeting

A five minute video summarises a stakeholder meeting on the Swedish chemicals ecotax on flame retardants, Stockholm, 17th September 2019, where Henrik Edin (IT Telekomföretagen) and Hans Wendschlag (Hewlett Packard) presented the case for a revision of the tax. This tax, introduced in 2017, hits all electrical and electronic equipment sold to the public in shops in Sweden (but not over internet from abroad), and can reach up to around 40€ per item. However, it is widely criticised because the current criteria do not stimulate safer chemical substitution, because they target the wrong chemical properties by targeting not only halogenated FRs but also all additive phosphorus FRs. There are no standard test methods to identify the chemical groups defining the tax levels, leading to legal uncertainty. The Swedish chemicals agency KEMI has already recommended that the tax should target inherent individual substance properties, with identified testing methods, and that e-commerce must not be excluded. Pinfa recommends to revise the tax, with the support of an expert group, to review the scope of which flame retardants are targeted, and to include a zero tax rate to ensure an effective push to safer chemical substitution.

“The Swedish chemical tax. Do it again and do it right”. 5 minute video http://www.beard.de/2019-04_pinfa10/2019-09-17_Swedish_Electronics_Tax.MOV

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