As a countermeasure against the European Union's regulation to limit the amount of harmful components in electronics, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) is moving fast to unleash its own rules this month.

The EU measures are to be enacted on July 1, 2006, but MII is hoping to unveil its own restrictions on January 20, 2006 and then have them implemented by January 20, 2007.

MII's "Electronics and Information Products Pollution Control Measures", or the "Green Decree", was jointly signed by seven Chinese ministries including the State Development and Reform Commission, China Environmental Protection Administration, Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Custom and State Quality Control Administration.

According to Huang Jianxin, a member of the drafting team, the measures stipulate the types of materials, shelf life and packaging of ten kinds of electronic products sold on the Chinese market.

Electronic products that contain such restricted substances as lead, mercury, and cadmium will be included with a warning before they enter the market.

Huang said that later, the products containing chemical elements limited by the government will be listed in a

special catalog and must pass the 3C certification before they are allowed to access the market.