2021.10.06
APPLiA in broad collaboration on the tax on electronics
We share the government's ambition to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals in people's homes and to stimulate producers to use more environmentally friendly alternative chemicals in their products. However, the Swedish Chemicals Agency (KEMI) and the Swedish Tax Agency have in their investigation[1] has shown that the Swedish tax has not achieved its environmental goals as it has not largely changed the use of flame retardants in electronics, that it is not cost-effective, that it has increased prices for consumers and that it is administratively burdensome for companies.
The Swedish tax on electronics is an ineffective way to try to get a global industry to change the production of products for the consumption of a smaller country. Since the products covered by the Swedish tax on electronics are manufactured and sold on a global level, we believe that the work to reduce hazardous substances in them is best handled at the EU level. Examples of such successful work are the work within the framework of REACH and RoHS and, most recently, the work to ban PFAS substances, where Sweden, among others, has been a driving force.
[1] Evaluation of the tax on chemicals in certain electronics, part 2, Ref. No.: 8-262570
