International Roundtable of Household Appliance Manufacturer Associations 2019 (IRHMA 2019) was convened in Seoul, Korea on September 5, 2019. Representatives from Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), Home Appliance Europe (APPLiA), the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association (JEMA), Korea Electronics Association (KEA), Association of European Businesses (AEB), South African Domestic Appliances Association (SADA) and China Household Electrical Appliances Association (CHEAA) were brought together to update the latest progress of IRHMA’s work groups, industry development in individual regions and share their views.

As one of the founding members, CHEAA initiated IRHMA’s Smart Appliance Work Group. At this year’s meeting, Jiang Feng, President of CHEAA, introduced the progress of CHEAA’s association standards and the revision of CHEAA’s industry technical roadmaps. Wan Chunhui, Deputy Secretary General and Director of CHEAA’s Department of Standards and Regulations, introduced the latest progress of CHEAA’s Cloud to Cloud Interconnection (CIC) Project, and Luo Yuanyuan, Director of CHEAA’s Information Consultancy Department, introduced the development and trends of Chinese home appliance industry.

On behalf of IRHMA’s Information Collection Work Group, Paolo Falcioni, Director General of APPLiA, briefed the market performance of refrigerators, freezers, dishwashers, washing machines, tumble dryers, hoods and microwave ovens in China, EU, Japan, Korea, Russia and North America in 2018 and the changes from 2015 to 2018. Paolo also shared progress of energy label, eco-design, EPREL database, circular economy, WEEE, reparability of products, microplastics, etc.

On behalf of IRHMA’s Policy and Regulation Work Group, Joseph McGuire, President of AHAM, shared policy progress in US and Canada that covered energy, technology, trade, environmental protection, and safety. He also introduced connectivity activities AHAM had been involved in.

Masahiro Atarashi, Director and General Manager of home electrical appliances of JEMA attended the meeting. Takayuki Yabe, Manager of home electrical appliances of JEMA introduced the positive list system (PLS) on food contact materials of Japan. According to him, appliances having plastic parts that contact with foods must also comply with PLS. The PLS is scheduled to kick in starting June 2020. Yukio Uchida, Unit Leader of Product Regulation Compliance Section of Panasonic, introduced the progress of IRHMA’s Standard Information Work Group from March 2018 to August 2019.

So Young Moon, Manager of Industry Policy Office of KEA, introduced Korea’s I-Korea 4.0 policy and action plans, big data co-platform program (DAMDA), and the policy progress on Korea’s personal information protection.

Frank Schauff, CEO of AEB attended the meeting. Olga Silnitskaya, Committee Coordinator of Home Appliance Manufacturers Committee of AEB, introduced key regulatory issues of household appliance industry in Russia and Eurasian Economic Union that included progress in RoHS, waste management, and the track and trace policy.

IRHMA members approved KEA’s proposal of establishing a Cyber Security Work Group, agreed to include SADA as a new member, and jointly released two public statements on cyber security and free trade. In the next three years, AEB, CHEAA and AHAM will host IRHMA 2020, IRHMA 2021 and IRHMA 2022 respectively.

Related documents:

IRHMA Joint Statement on Cybersecurity.pdf

IRHMA Joint Statement on Free Trade.pdf