The European Commission announced on Wednesday a prohibition on any lighters without child-resistance devices from being sold in European market. The prohibition went into effect from the date of announcement.

Insiders have estimated previously that the rule would affect half of the lighter exports from Wenzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang Province. Lighter export volumes to Europe haven't noticeably declined as of yesterday, according to sources from related enterprises.

The rule was proposed last year in the EU. Besides requiring all the lighters on the European market to be equipped with child-resistance safety locks, the rule also stipulated that lighter designs should be plain enough to avoid children from being attracted to them. The European Commission asserted that the rule was implemented to prevent accidents and thus losses caused by children's accidental use of lighters. Previously, 40 fires caused by children playing with lighters have been reported in Europe.

Meanwhile, many other analyses thought that the EU also wanted the rule implemented in order to limit lighter sales from China.

Over one billion lighters are sold in Europe each year, with a big portion imported from China. Raising the product safety standards would create challenges for Chinese manufacturers, analysts said.

"The rule of child-resistance lighters is compulsory, so all the enterprises doing business with the EU have to make their products meet the rule's requirements," revealed a staff member from the Wenzhou Industrial Association of Smoking Set. He added, "Chinese lighter enterprises began to redesign their products last year when they became acquainted with this EU proposal."

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/news/channel/political40999.shtml)

(China.org.cn March 13, 2008)