A senior Tory MP has warned toy producers in the UK face a nightmare before Christmas, as the EU continues meddling with rules and regulations. The European Commission recently proposed new changes that will soon force UK toys sold to the continent to come with a ‘toy passport’, adding to burdensome regulations faced by businesses.
The proposals would amend current regulations, banning toys containing harmful substances, including carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic chemicals (CMRs).
However the EU’s new policy would extend these rules to cover more materials, and could lead to over 26 million toys being withdrawn from the market.
Any toy manufacturer, including those in Britain, hoping to boost festive cheer in European homes at Christmas will now be forced to comply with the new rules.
The House of Commons’ European Scrutiny Committee has now raised concerns about the new rules.
Sir Bill Cash warned: “These new rules could have a significant impact on toy producers in the UK.”
“While we note that the Government’s assessment is at an early stage, we call for the Government to provide more information on the extent of divergence between the UK and EU on toy safety.
“The Committee shares the Government’s view that Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to the rest of the UK market.
“We urge the Government to set out how it will make sure that remains the case, and how it will consult NI manufacturers on the likely impact of the new rules.”
The Committee has also written to the Government, demanding to know what plans it has towards diverging from the EU’s costly regulations as they seek to take advantage of post-Brexit freedoms.
Sir Bill is also calling on the Government to consult with manufacturers on the EU’s toy passport proposals, not least given their potential application in Northern Ireland thanks to Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework agreement, struck with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in February of this year.
The EU’s own impact assessment says its “stringent” regulations are “costly for companies”, but warn disreputable companies ignoring rules are causing an “uneven playing field”.
They speculate that as of 2019 the non-compliant toys market could be €1.65 billion.
The impact assessment also warns that the new rules could cost firms thousands per toy just to make sure there comply with the new chemical limits.
A survey conducted by the EU around the proposed toy crackdown saw industry argue that the current rules are “sufficiently protective and there was no need to strengthen its requirement”, which stood in contrast to answers from consumer and environmental groups.
Toy manufacturers also warned that the new rules will merely result in even more non-compliant toys in the market, with few compliant toys for consumers.
