Summary 
of
China Seminar on Electronics: Lead-Free Technologies and Recycling

From left to right: 
George Liu, USITO; Jennifer Guhl, AeA; Terrence McManus, Intel; David Towne, Sun Microsystems; 
James Liu, Motorola; Timothy Liang, AMD; John Lau, Agilent Technologies.

On November 10 and 11, 2003, the U.S. Information Technology Office (USITO) hosted a seminar in Beijing, China with key officials from the Ministry of Information Industries (MII) in order for to industry to present the latest research and development (R&D) into "Lead-Free Electronics and Recycling." Earlier this year, MII issued a draft regulation entitled, "Management Methods for the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Electronics Information Products," which is based on two European Union (EU) laws banning the use of certain critical substances in electronics products and requiring take-back and recycling of waste electronics (2002/96/EC and 2002/95/EC). MII plans to finalize its regulation by the end of 2003. 

Organized by AeA, the purpose of the seminar was to inform MII officials of the technical challenges associated with industry's conversion to "lead-free" technologies and to establish an on-going dialogue with MII officials as more R&D in this important area is performed and deployed. Click here to view the agenda and presentations.

The technical seminar was sponsored by, and featured industry experts from: 
Agilent Technologies
Alcatel
AMD
Cisco Systems
Dell
Hewlett Packard
IBM
Intel
Lucent Technologies
Motorola
National Semiconductor
Nokia
Sun Microsystems
Texas Instruments. 

The seminar resulted in a commitment by MII officials to consult with USITO, AeA, and participating companies on a forward-going basis, particularly with respect to determining the product scope of the regulation, and establishing the proper compliance and enforcement mechanisms. 

With offices in Brussels and Beijing, AeA is best-positioned and able to organize and execute a harmonized industry lobbying strategy on "lead-free" product requirements in order to avoid technical barriers to international trade in high-tech products.

This page was last updated on 11/20/03.  
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