Release Issued by PIC:

Japanese commend PIC in work on classifying certain digital cameras as camcorders

The major Japanese manufacturers of photographic & imaging products have commended the Photo Imaging Council (PIC) for their work in negotiations concerning the proposal to classify certain types of digital camera as camcorders.  The successful conclusion to these endeavours means that hardly any of these cameras will now attract customs duty.

The PIC team facilated meetings and worked with the Import Operations Unit, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and with HM Revenue & Customs - including the UK representative on the European Commission's Nomenclature Committee discussing the proposal. 

Members of the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) in Tokyo specifically singled out PIC as being the most helpful European association in bringing the issue to a successful conclusion.

Graeme Chapman, the Deputy Chair of PIC and MD of Olympus, commented “This is the real worth of a trade association with many years experience and good government contacts; this type of work goes on quietly and effectively in the background and benefits the whole industry”.

This is a recent example of the PIC team’s success in working for industry.  Similar cases can be made for PIC’s work on WEEE, RoHS, REACH…  The new involvement is with the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive which will come into law on 1 April 2008 entailing a major re-writing of UK consumer law with 17 Acts being repealed or amended and 31 practices being banned.  PIC members are being kept up to date and advised on these important changes to their trading conditions.

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