1.

Notifying Member: United States of America

If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):  

2.

Agency responsible: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [1268]

Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above: Please submit comments to: USA WTO TBT Enquiry Point, Email:  usatbtep@nist.gov

3.

Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [ ], 5.6.2 [ ], 5.7.1 [ ], other:

4.

Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): Trichloroethylene. Environmental protection (ICS 13.020), Products of the chemical industry (ICS 71.100)

5.

Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Trichloroethylene; Regulation of Certain Uses Under TSCA Sec. 6(a) (33 pages, in English).    

6.

Description of content: Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a volatile organic compound widely used in industrial and commercial processes and has some limited uses in consumer and commercial products. EPA identified significant health risks associated with TCE use in aerosol degreasing and for spot cleaning in dry cleaning facilities. EPA has preliminarily determined that these risks are unreasonable risks. To address these unreasonable risks, EPA is proposing under section 6 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prohibit the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of TCE for use in aerosol degreasing and for use in spot cleaning in dry cleaning facilities; to prohibit commercial use of TCE for aerosol degreasing and for spot cleaning in dry cleaning facilities; to require manufacturers, processors, and distributors, except for retailers of TCE for any use, to provide downstream notification of these prohibitions throughout the supply chain; and to require limited recordkeeping.

7.

Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable: Protection of the environment

8.

Relevant documents: 81 Federal Register (FR) 91592, 16 December 2016; Title 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 751.  Will appear in the Federal Register when adopted.

9.

Proposed date of adoption:  To be determined

Proposed date of entry into force:  To be determined

10.

Final date for comments: 14 February 2017

11.

Texts available from: National enquiry point [  ] or address, telephone and fax numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:

https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2016/TBT/USA/16_5244_00_e.pdf