The "Wenzhou Lighter Incident" in May 2002 was the first case of intellectual property barrier after China's entry into WTO. At that time, Wenzhou produced 850 million lighters every year, exported 500 million lighters, accounting for 80% of the European market, and exported 30 million US dollars to EU countries. The export price of Wenzhou lighters is around 1 euro, and most of them are not equipped with safety locks. According to the safety standard of lighters (CR standard) published by the European Union Standardization Committee in May 2002, lighters with ex-factory price or customs price less than 2 euros must be equipped with safety locks (CR devices) to prevent children from opening them, and must pass the experiments of relevant certification departments in the European Union. Therefore, when Wenzhou lighter manufacturers export lighters below 1 euro to the EU after June 2004, they must install safety locks that meet CR standards. However, most of these child lock patents that need to be adopted are held by Europe and America. That is to say, if China enterprises want to meet the EU child lock standards and continue to export, first, they will buy patents from foreign enterprises and pay huge patent fees, but the production cost will increase greatly, which will make Wenzhou lighter manufacturers lose their price advantage and market; Second, Wenzhou enterprises develop their own products, which takes a long time and costs a lot, and may also lose the EU market.
After the incident, the relevant state departments organized Wenzhou Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau, lighter associations and enterprises to scientifically evaluate the theorem and classification of lighters, conduct scientific experiments on the safety performance of various lighters, and put forward scientific arguments on which safety locks should be added and which should not be added, and submit them to the EU for reference. On June 5438+ 10, 2003, leaders of lighter enterprises such as Wenzhou Nibo Smoking Co., Ltd. went to the European Union for negotiation and consultation on CR standard. On June 9th, 2003, 65438+February 9th, 2003, the emergency committee of the European Union General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) cancelled the original EU resolution to enforce CR on lighter manufacturers from June 2004, and the resolution no longer took effect, which marked the first victory of China lighters in resisting the EU intellectual property barrier.
At the same time, the EU announced in February 2003 that starting from the spring of 2004, the ISO9994-2002 standard will be implemented for all lighters, lighters and other dangerous goods entering the EU market. According to this new lighter standard of EU, the standards of "temperature test" and "burning height" in the new standard have been greatly improved. According to this standard, at present, the products of most lighter enterprises in Wenzhou can not meet the requirements, and will be blocked by the European Union again. The European Union has created new intellectual property barriers for Wenzhou lighter manufacturers, and Wenzhou lighter manufacturers are once again facing challenges, and trade games arising from intellectual property barriers are one after another. However, Wenzhou lighter manufacturers responded positively and took measures to make Wenzhou's lighter exports to the European Union grow steadily, reaching $35 million by the end of June 5438+February 2004. These measures are encapsulated in the following：
1, learn from the successful experience of European and American countries in dealing with anti-dumping lawsuits and technical barriers against China lighters, and actively respond;
2. Implement market diversification strategy, and export products to more than 60 countries and regions such as the European Union, the United States and Japan;
3. Lighter manufacturers dared to innovate in technology, developed a variety of lighters with CR devices, and applied for patents in the United States and the European Union successively, successfully breaking through the intellectual property barrier.