24   Ottobre   2016

Two meetings on the European tableware industry in Italy

In Ispra the sixth stakeholder workshop organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC); in Milan the General Meeting of the European Federation FEPF.

The sixth stakeholder workshop organised by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to discuss the review of Directive 84/500/EEC on Food Contact Materials (FCM) will be held tomorrow 25 October in Ispra. An Italian delegation representing Confindustria Ceramica, Centro Ceramico and tableware sector companies will be taking part in this technical meeting.

The proposed review aims to drastically lower the limit values for the release of metals into food and consequently to re-evaluate current analysis methods. The discussion within the JRC is currently focused on defining the most appropriate release kinetics and the corresponding method of analysis. Artisanal products will also be considered, as well as the potential implications that the review of the directive would have on these production activities. Numerous tests have been conducted on samples supplied by the companies. Italian companies in particular have made a key contribution in terms of both their willingness to create custom samples for specific tests and the number of samples supplied.
The General Meeting of the European Federation FEPF, which has 10 member countries, will be held in Milan on the following day, Wednesday 26 October. The meeting, chaired by the federation’s British chairman Kevin Oakes and Italian vice chairman Roberto Sala, will discuss the most topical issues for the sector, from the question of food contact materials addressed at the above-mentioned meeting in Ispra to matters of international trade.

One of the most important of these concerns the monitoring of antidumping measures on imports of Chinese tableware introduced in 2013 for a period of five years. A related issue is the discussion of whether or not the European Union should grant market economy status to China, a move that the ceramic industry and all other major manufacturing sectors firmly oppose along with any other changes liable to undermine antidumping measures.
Other trade issues relevant to the sector include technical barriers in third countries and other protectionist measures that obstruct Italian exports, such as the protection measures in Ukraine and the Eurasian Economic Union. These are all important areas where action must be taken to safeguard the future of the Italian and European tableware industries.