EU round up: EU and Mexico plot new trade deal

The Trade in paints and coatings between the European Union (EU) and Mexico could be set to rise, with the EU and Mexico announcing they are planning later this year to start negotiations on upgrading a 15 years’ old free trade agreement (FTA) between them. The goal would be making it more comprehensive, involving more regulatory harmonisation than the existing deal that largely focuses on tariff reduction: "We are aiming for an EU-Mexico deal that is comparable to the one with Canada and to the one to be concluded with the US,” said EU trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
The EU already exports substantial amounts of paints and coatings to Mexico. In 2013, its exporters sold US$36M’s worth of non-aqueous synthetic polymer-based paints and coatings in Mexico and in 2012 US$37M. EU imports of Mexican non-aqueous synthetic polymer-based paints and coatings were worth USD240,000 in 2013; in an aqueous medium, USD243,000.

Other EU paint and coatings

regulatory news:
• EU chemical regulatory authorities have been contacting biocidal product manufacturers making so-called ‘orphan authorisations’, where the unique identifier of a future authorisation holder is missing from the EU’s Registry for Biocidal Products. This is necessary for the biocidal product to be part of European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)-co-ordinated controls, which must be followed by September 1. An ECHA note said the work would be completed in June.

• And ECHA is constantly updating an online list of biocidal product registration applications awaiting decisions from its experts ­ the goal is increasing transparency ahead of September 1, especially for small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ­ see http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/17287015/active_substances_list_of_pending_app_en.pdf.

• Meanwhile, ECHA has published an illustrative example of consumer exposure to substances in articles, helping companies comply with obligations under EU chemical control system REACH regarding assessing the so-called ‘service life’ of items incorporating chemicals, including coatings. See http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/13632/csr_sia_exposure_examples_en.pdf

• The European Commission has welcomed new ship coatings technologies developed through the €3.5M EU-funded ‘ThroughLife’ project. Its goal was developing new approaches for managing maritime assets through their working life using new materials and production technology. Coatings innovations developed included developing new self-healing coatings incorporating microcapsules to improve corrosion protection of ballast water tanks (BWTs); another achievement was selecting and investigating commercially-available anti-abrasive coatings to decrease the abrasion of cargo deck plating of hopper suction dredgers. See http://www.throughlife.eu