Author: SME Chamber

The European
Chemicals Agency has launched a public consultation on the Restriction proposal
for Lead and its compounds in articles
intended for consumer use (EC: 231-100-4, CAS: 7439-92-1).  The
full report on this Annex XV restriction has been published and can be
downloaded from the following link: http://echa.europa.eu/documents/10162/80f7edca-b6c1-4433-8734-854594530db2

Lead has been deemed a non-threshold toxic substance for
neurotoxic and neurodevelopmental effects, in particular in children. This
means that it is not possible to establish a "safe" level of lead in the blood
of children. Consequently, their exposure to lead should be avoided as far as
possible.

Children's exposure to lead is still above the highest
tolerable level. All additional exposure to lead, from food or non-food
sources, should therefore be avoided as far as possible. There is hence a need
for further regulation.

Lead and its compounds have a wide use and have been found in
a great variety of applications, some of them being articles intended for
consumer use. Lead is usually present in metal alloys (notably brass), in
pigments/dyes, and to a lesser extent as stabilisers in plastic and as pure
metal. It cannot be determined through a simple analysis which lead compound is
present in a specific material. Neither can it be simply established whether
lead is present as pigment or as stabiliser in a plastic. Therefore, all lead
compounds should be targeted by any further action proposed.

The main route through which children are exposed to lead
from these articles seems to be the mouthing (sucking and chewing) behaviour
exhibited by small children. Of the consumer available articles that are frequently
placed in the mouth by children, and that are not covered by other regulations,
around 10% can be estimated to contain lead. The average lead concentration in
these articles is around 1%. When children exhibit their normal mouthing
behaviour, this lead may cause risk of impaired development of their central
nervous system. The health risk to children who suck or chew lead containing
articles has recently been subject to a restriction under REACH, namely that of
lead in jewellery (entry 63 of Annex XVII).

The action proposed is a restriction in which articles
intended and available for consumer use, which can be placed in the mouth by
children, may be placed on the market only if they do not contain lead above a
limit value of 0.05% by weight. The limit value, which is supported by the
tolerable lead content calculated in this report, should also apply to
individual parts of the articles in question. Such a restriction is aligned
with the similar restriction of lead and its compounds in jewellery items,
which enables a harmonised regulation on lead in the whole range of consumer
articles.

Kindly submit comments on the
restriction proposal by Friday 28^th
June 2013 on 23952000 or

EU-wide testing plan for horsemeat DNA and phenylbutazone (an
anti-inflammatory drug used as a painkiller in veterinary medicine for pets and
horses) has revealed that less than 5 %
of the tested products had horse DNA and that about 0.5 % of the equine carcasses tested were found to be contaminated
with phenylbutazone.

The purpose of the testing plan was:

to
detect the presence of unlabelled horsemeat of food destined for the end
consumer and marketed as containing beef through controls to be carried out,
mainly at retail level;

to
test for the possible presence of bute in horsemeat.

To that end, 7,259 tests were carried out by the competent
authorities in the 27 EU countries, of which 4,144 tested for the presence of
horsemeat DNA and 3,115 tested for the presence of phenylbutazone. Of those
tests, 193 revealed positive traces of horsemeat DNA (4.66%) and 16 showed
positive traces of phenylbutazone (0.51%).

Member States reported another 7,951 tests for the presence
of horsemeat DNA performed by food business operators (producers, processors
and distributors). Of these, 110 contained horsemeat DNA (1.38%). The positive
samples found in relation to horsemeat DNA combined with the very low levels of
bute detected represents a small part of the overall production in EU.

Commissioner Borg has declared that these findings have confirmed that this is a matter of food fraud and not
of food safety and that restoring the trust and confidence of consumers
and trading partners in the food chain is now of vital importance for the EU
economy given as the food sector is the largest single economic sector in the EU. 

Next steps

The Commission and Member States will meet on 19 April to
discuss whether the plan should be extended.

The situation in Malta

The authorities found no presence of horsemeat in beef
products in Malta, according to an EU-wide report issued this week.

The EU said these results correspond with the joint statement
published by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European
Medicines Agency (EMA) yesterday,  which concluded that the risks
associated to phenylbutazone were of "low concern for consumers due to the
low likelihood of exposure and the overall low likelihood of toxic effects and
that, on a given day, the probability of a consumer being both susceptible to
developing aplastic anaemia and being exposed to phenylbutazone was estimated
to range approximately from 2 in a trillion to 1 in 100 million."

Duties later this year may be applied
retrospectively to cover imports from April 2013 – The latest important development is that the duties may be
applied retrospectively before the coming into force of the provisional duties.
From 6 March the European Commission started keeping registration of such
imports in the EU in case it decides to impose provisional duties and apply
them retrospectively – 90 days before the coming into force of the provisional
duties. rent estimate).

This whether or not the purchase order was made in advance of this
date. Even though the retrospective application of the duty is not guaranteed
there is a very high probability this is applied.

Background

GRTU had informed members in a
consultation meeting back in November 2012 that the European Commission had
initiated investigations on instances of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy on
imports of solar panels originating from China. The products subject to
registration are classifiable under the following Combined Nomenclature (CN)
codes: ex 3818 00 10, ex 8501 31 00, ex 8501 32 00, ex 8501 33 00, ex 8501 34
00, ex 8501 61 20, ex 8501 61 80, ex 8501 62 00, ex 8501 63 00, ex 8501 64 00
and ex 8541 40 90.

Timeline

If the Commission investigation concludes that the situation
is leading to injury of the EU industry and that the imposition of measures
does not go against overall Community Interest, provisional measures will be
implemented within 9 months of the initiation of the investigation (6th June 2013 for anti-dumping measures and 5th August
2013 for anti-subsidy measures). If the Commission decides on imposing definite
measures, anti-dumping measures will be imposed on 5th December 2013 and anti-subsidy measures would be imposed
on 7^th February 2014.  These would be applicable for 5years.

Tariffs

The exact level of any tariff that may be imposed by the EU
is not known but the tariff will aim either to remove the effects of dumping
the imported goods in the EU or to remove the injury caused by the dumping,
whichever is lower. The amount of duty imposed, either provisionally or
definitively, should not exceed the margin of dumping. i.e. the Council may
impose a tariff that levels out the cost of the imported goods (subject to the
dumping tariff) and the goods produced in the community that have been
adversely affected by the dumping. However, if a lower duty would be sufficient
to remove the injury caused to the community industry, then a lower duty should
be imposed. The duties are paid on importation in the EU and are at valorem and
the same in the whole of the EU, but may vary from Chinese manufacturer to
manufacturer or amongst Chinese exporters.

According to the Commission Regulation, the allegations in
these investigations estimate the amount of 60 to 70 per cent for dumping and
10 to 15 per cent for subsidisation (meaning 60 per cent to 85 per cent in
total by cur

A meeting for you're
the Renewable Energy Sector will be held to update the Sector on: PV Purchasing Facilitation Scheme (PVPFS), Anti-Dumping on Renewable Energy Systems, MRA domestic PV scheme

The meeting shall be held as follows:

The meeting shall start with a presentation to the media to
promote the scheme. Following which you will be able to ask questions about the
schemes, and a representative of BOV will also be available to answer your
questions. Presentation of certificates to the GRTU APPROVED companies will also
take place.

Date: Monday 15^th
April

Time: 12.30

Venue: GRTU, Exchange
Buildings, Republic Street, Valletta

Registration with or 21 232 881 is required

A practical guide to eco-innovation
addressed to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is now published. The
booklet overviews emerging business opportunities eco-innovation has to offer
to companies that reconsider business models, develop new products,
technologies or services, or improve production processes. The guide summarises
key business issues, questions and lessons learnt for SMEs as well as presents
selected eco-innovation good practices.

This guide is divided into six
sections. The opening chapter introduces the concept of eco-innovation. The
focus then shifts to the key issues, challenges and opportunities of
eco-innovation for SMEs. The guide includes sections on:

business model and value
proposition

process eco-innovation

product eco-innovation

getting eco-innovations on the
market

online resources for
eco-innovation.

This guide is addressed above all to
companies that have not yet embarked on any eco-innovation activity, but are
interested in exploring the potential offered by eco-innovation for their
business or new business idea. The publication will be equally useful for
business support organisations providing-or planning to provide-eco-innovation
support and coaching services to SMEs.

The guide can be downloaded at: http://www.eco-innovation.eu/images/stories/Reports/sme_guide.pdf

GRTU was delighted to learn of the
news of the further antitrust action taken by the European Commission against
MasterCard's inter-bank fees. This is excellent news for consumers
and retailers across Europe who have suffered long enough from the
unjustifiably high fees and the anticompetitive practices of the card schemes.

The new investigation will cover
issues not yet addressed in the Commission's decision of 2007, which was upheld
on appeal by the European General Court in May 2012. The court confirmed that
MasterCard's cross-border multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) were in breach
of European competition law. However, since MasterCard has taken the case to
further appeal on points of law, many national competition authorities still
have not taken action.

The new investigation will look into
restrictive rules on cross-border acquiring and the honour all cards rule
(HACR): these have long been of great concern to the retail sector. The HACR
compels merchants to accept some cards which carry very high fee levels. Card
scheme rules on cross-border acquiring prevent the commerce sector from
creating efficiencies through the use of centralised acquiring and so keep
costs unnecessarily high.

Europe deserves an electronic payment
system which is open, competitive and offers a cheap basic way to transfer
money within and across national borders. This is the way forward for payments
in Europe.

The European Commission initiated an
interim review investigation of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports
of bicycles originating in the People's Republic of China. The request contains sufficient
initial evidence that  the anti-dumping
measures on imports of bicycles originating in the People's Republic of China
are being circumvented by means of transhipment via Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri
Lanka and Tunisia and by means of assembly operations of certain bicycle parts
from the People's Republic of China.

This temporary review on anti-dumping
underlines the following:

The
R546 General Disclosure Document reveals all the details on the anti-dumping
interim review as well as the investigation on China allegedly subsidizing
Chinese bike exporters.

The R563 document reports on DG Trade's circumvention investigation into bike
companies based in various Asian countries evading the 48.5% dumping duty
through transhipments of bikes made in China in their export to the European
Union.

DG Trade's R546 General Disclosure
Document says on China subsidizing Chinese bike exporters that: "The
Chinese aluminium market is distorted due to significant intervention of the
State." DG Trade comes to the same conclusion for the country's steel
market. On this and numerous other investigation findings DG trade concludes
that Market Economy Treatment (MET) should be rejected for the Chinese groups
that requested such treatment.

On the existing 48.5% anti-dumping
levied on bikes imported from China, the R546 General Disclosure Document says:
"The continuation of measures on imports of bicycles originating in the
PRC would clearly be in the interest of the Union industry and the Union
suppliers of bicycle parts. It will allow the Union industry to grow and
improve its situation caused by the dumped imports.

Furthermore, the importers would not
be substantially affected since fairly priced bicycles would still be available
on the market from the PRC and other third counties. Also, due to the extensive
use of the existing exemption scheme by the Union industry, it was concluded
that the existing measures had no significant negative impact on the
users/consumers. In contrast, if measures were repealed, Union bicycles
producers will likely close production, thus also threatening the existence of
Union bicycle parts producers."

Intended to help domestic
manufacturers, antidumping duties cause considerable damage to EU importers. To
improve the system, it is essential to consider traders' needs properly.

Proposals are a moderate package that
will please no economic operator entirely. But, with some amendments, it could
well pave the way for a viable compromise to be agreed with the Parliament and
the Member States.

Importers need predictability. They
need to calculate price, quality and quantity in due time. Orders are binding
and paid for a long time in advance. A shipment clause covering average
transport times would mitigate the loss of planning certainty incurred by EU
trade defence.

The new guidelines on the Union
Interest Test (to ensure the respect of overall economic interests in the EU –
importers, manufacturers, consumers) and three other procedural issues are an
important contribution to more legal certainty. However, they still need to
better reflect the reality of an importer's business. The consultation launched
today is a good opportunity to get this right.

Finally, optimised rules for reviews
and refunds, an upgraded helpdesk for SMEs and facilitated cooperation for
importers are helpful additional proposals contained in the package. On the
negative side, the Commission intends to water down the lesser duty rule and to
initiate trade defence investigations ex
officio.

Change in tax rate cuts – Employers to upgrade payroll
system – Following the approval of the Budget
this week all employers need to update their payroll system to immediately
start to reflect the reduction of tax rate from 35% to 32%. Employees earning between €20,000 and
€60,000 a year should see a 3% per cent increase in their earnings with their
next paycheque.

This increase however is owed since
the beginning of the year because the new lower rate has been backdated to
January 1, meaning eligible workers are now owed a four-month tax rebate by the
Inland Revenue Department.

Employers should shortly be receiving
a circular with payroll update instructions from the Department of Inland
Revenue.

Once payrolls are updated, the Final
Settlement System mechanism would automatically look at how much income tax a
person had already paid this year, calculate how much they should have paid,
and refund the difference.

The changes mean that a person
earning €3,000 monthly before tax will likely find that their monthly €660
income tax deduction suddenly dip to €496 next month, to make up for having
overpaid tax since January. The figure would however then level at €619 for
subsequent months, meaning savings of €41 a month.

Vehicle Registration &
Licensing Measures

Transport Malta notifies that in line
with the new budgetary measures, the following changes will be applicable.
These are in addition to the measures that were already implemented between
January and March 2013 related to reductions in Registration Tax for EURO 5
Light Passenger Vehicles, all Motorcycles, and Goods Carrying Vehicles with a
mass not exceeding 3,500kg.

Measure 1: Registration Tax
on EURO 4 M1 Vehicles

The rates of registration tax for
Category M1 passenger vehicles with up to eight passenger seats besides the
driver's seat, with EURO 4 emission levels, will have their registration tax
increased. (table)

Measure 2:
Minimum Registration Tax for Used M1 Vehicles

The Minimum Registration Tax for Used
Category M1 passenger vehicles with up to eight passenger seats besides the
driver's seat, imported from outside the EU, and having five years from the
year of manufacture, will decrease in accordance with the table below. This
applies only for the lowest two CO2 tax bands (i.e. 0 up to 130g/km) as
follows:

These new minimum tax values will be
applicable as from 29th November 2012, and therefore refunds will be issued to
anyone that would have registered such a vehicle between this date and the 8th
April 2013.

Measure 3:
Conversions to Autogas

Category M1 passenger vehicles with
up to eight passenger seats besides the driver's seat that are either
converted, or run with Autogas will have their CO2 emission levels reduced by
10%. This will:

a) Reduce the registration tax for
vehicles registered as of 1st January 2013; and

b) Reduce the annual circulation
licence fee as of 1st January 2013 for vehicles licensed after January 2009,
and converted to Autogas after 1st January 2013.

Where such a vehicle is converted to
run on Autogas and no emissions are available for a converted vehicle by the
vehicle's manufacturer or by an approved accredited technical service, the CO2
emission value as quoted for an unconverted vehicle shall be automatically
reduced by 10%. Transport Malta will then use this value to calculate the
applicable annual circulation licence fee or registration tax as applicable.

Measure 4:
Registration Values for Authorised Licensed Dealers and Importers

Licensed vehicle dealers and
importers will have the facility to establish a fixed registration value for
their vehicle (for registration tax calculation purposes) at registration
stage, and the payment of the registration tax will be deferred until the
vehicle is actually licensed. This enables the licensed vehicle dealers and
importers to reduce the risk of fluctuations in registration values from the
time the vehicle is brought into Malta, and the time it is actually sold and
licensed. Individuals already have until the end of the month following when
the value would have been established.

This measure applies for all vehicle
values established as of the 29th November 2012.

Measure 5:
Classic, Vintage or Veteran Vehicles including Motorcycles

a) The single plate scheme that was
available to individuals who have more than one vehicle qualifying as classic,
vintage or veteran vehicles, enabling to pay once annual circulation fee for
all the fleet, will be abolished as of the individual vehicles' next licence
renewal date. Therefore as of the 29th November 2012, and all Classic, Vintage
or Veteran vehicles will not pay an annual circulation licence fee and will
only pay an administrative fee of €8 per vehicle on the renewal of the annual
circulation licence fee.

b) As of 29th November 2012, a
vehicle will classify as a Classic, Vintage or Veteran Vehicle at the age of 30
years from year of manufacture instead of 35. Such vehicles will continue to be
certified by a Vintage Vehicle Classification Committee appointed by Transport
Malta in accordance with the law.

c) Category M1 passenger vehicles
with up to eight passenger seats besides the driver's seat with an age of 50
years or over from the year of manufacture, and certified authentic by the
Vintage Vehicle Classification Committee appointed by Transport Malta, will not
pay any Registration Tax as of the 29th November 2012.

d) Motorcycles with an age of 50
years or over from the year of manufacture and certified authentic by the
Vintage Vehicle Classification Committee will not pay any Registration Tax as
of the 29th November 2012.

e) Goods Carrying Vehicles with an
age of 50 years or over from the year of manufacture and certified authentic by
the Vintage Vehicle Classification Committee will not pay any Registration Tax
as of the 29th November 2012.

Measure 6:
Annual Circulation Licence Fees (M1 Vehicles over 250g/km)

The Annual Circulation Licence Fee
for Category M1 passenger vehicles with up to eight passenger seats besides the
driver's seat that were registered on or after the 1st January 2009, and
falling within the highest CO2 category (ie. over 250g/km), and aged 11 years
or over, have been reduced as per the table below.

These new minimum tax values will be
applicable as from 29th November 2012, and therefore refunds will be issued to
anyone that would have paid such fee between this date and the 8th April 2013.

Measure 7:
Refunds on previously introduced measures

With regard to the measures that were
already implemented between January and March 2013 related to reductions in
Registration Tax for EURO 5, Passenger (M1) Vehicles, all Motorcycles, and
Goods Carrying Vehicles with a mass not exceeding 3,500kg, Transport Malta will
be issuing refunds in the coming weeks as stipulated below:

a) M1 (Passenger cars) with EURO 5 or
6 emission levels and registered between the 11th December 2012 and the 13th
January 2013;

b) N1 (Goods Carrying Vehicles) with
EURO 5 or 6 emission levels and registered between the 11th December 2012 and
the 1st March 2013;

c) Motorcycles registered between the
11th December 2012 and the 1st March 2013.

Incentive Schemes

Hotels: Malta Enterprise will allow licensed hotels to
benefit from an uncapped 15% tax credit calculated by reference to the capital
investment made.

Boutique Hotels: Tax deductions on investments related
to the purchase and development of Boutique Hotels in Valletta, Mdina and the Three Cities.
These will also benefit from reduced MEPA and MTA fees.

MicroInvest: Extended for another 2 years and applies
not to businesses that do not employ more than 30 persons (while before the
maximum was 9 employees)

B Start: Existing businesses will be able to claim a
deduction from their income tax liability up to €30,000 where there invest in
seed capital in new approved companies

Maternity leave

Maternity leave entitlement was
extended by two weeks in 2012 to 16 weeks and will increase by a further two
weeks in 2013.

Energy Incentives

New incentives for the installation of
PV panels that are not supported through other funding. The incentives take the
form of attractive feed-in tariffs as follows:

High Energy User Scheme which applied
to factories that consumed more than 2GwH per year, extended to industries and
hotels in Gozo

Changes in excise

Increase in excise duty of 6% on cigarettes and 8% on
tobacco

Increase in petrol and diesel by 2c per litre

Increase in excise duty on cement by €5 per 1000kg