China RoHS will be delayed

China’s recently announced law banning the six hazardous materials included in the European Union’s (EU) RoHS legislation will apparently be delayed until January 1, 2007. Originally the law was set to go into effect on the RoHS deadline of July 1, 2006.

The delay is apparently tied to the late arrival of the final draft of “The Administration on the Control of Pollution Caused by Electronic Information Products,” which is expected to be released in January. Important components, such as the catalogue that will define the electronics products covered by the law, are still not available.

When we’ve asked what products are likely to be exempt from China’s regulations, we keep hearing, “There won’t be any exemptions” or “Maybe some medical equipment will be exempt.” More and more, it looks like China’s RoHS laws will differ from EU regulations enough to put many OEMs in the awkward position of creating products specifically for the Chinese market.

Original text is here