The Chinese government is preparing to enforce the first part of its 'China RoHS' regulations and their impact is likely to start being felt in China in 2011.

The regulations work via a 'catalogue' of product types and a set of certification laboratories. The first entries in the catalogue, published last year, were phones and printers. Already items shipped to China use EIP labelling to indicate compliance.

Over the next 2-3 months enforcement procedures are being prepared, considering first a set of Guidelines and then choosing a certification body. Enforcement itself may be similar to the approach of some EU countries in enforcing RoHS - to work with the industry rather than be adversarial.

Industry consultations are already underway for the next set of catalogue additions, likely to be televisions and DVD players. These will be added possibly by the end of the year.

A guide to China RoHS has been published by Farnell.