Mexico Proposes New Standards for Tyres and Fridges

Mexico has issued separate proposals to establish new mandatory standards on (1) new radial tyres for use in motor vehicles with a gross weight not exceeding 4,536 kilogrammes (10,000 pounds), as well as new radial tyres for use in motor vehicles with a gross weight over 4,536 kg with an H, V, W, Y or Z speed rating; and (2) refrigerators and freezers for household use. Interested parties may submit input on these proposals by 12 November and 18 November, respectively.

Tyres
PROY-NOM-086-SCFI-2017 would amend the current safety standard for the aforementioned tyres, whether domestically produced or imported, which has been in place since 11 October 2010. Excluded from the scope of this standard are, among others, tyres for race cars, motorcycles and agricultural and industrial use, temporary tyres, snow tyres and run flat tyres, although the proposal would expand this exception to explicitly cover tyres for recreational vehicles (e.g., go-carts, golf carts, mountain vehicles) as well as special tyres for military vehicles.

Among other things, the standard sets forth requirements regarding load capacity, tyre dimensions, wear indicators, tyre resistance to penetration high-speed performance, maximum inflation pressure, sampling, test methods, marking information, conformity assessment and enforcement. For example, the standard requires tyres to be marked on at least one side with certain commercial information including an identification key, the world “radial” or “R” inserted in the identification key, the company name or registered or commercial brand, the name of the importer and its tax identification number, the words “Sin Chamara” (tubeless) or “Hermitical” (hermetic) if the tyres have those features, the country of origin, the load capacity and an official password in accordance with NOM-106-SCFI-2000. Some of this information may be incorporated to the product in Mexico, after customs clearance but prior to the commercialisation of the product. The proposal would not make any substantive changes to these requirements, except for a clarification that certain required information in Spanish may be included on one or more labels.

The amended version of the tyre standard would enter into force 60 days from the date of issuance of a final regulation in Mexico’s official journal.

Fridges and Freezers
PROY-NOM-015-ENER-2017 would update the mandatory energy efficiency standards, test procedures, sampling and labelling requirements of NOM-015-ENER-2012, which have been in place since 16 May 2012. The standard applies to household refrigerators, household fridges-freezers of up to 1,104 litres, and household freezers of up to 850 litres using a hermetic moto-compressor.

Among other things, the proposal would explicitly exclude self-contained commercial refrigeration equipment covered by NOM-022-ENER/SCFI-2014, as well as wine chillers, wine cellars, water chillers and water dispensers. It would gradually phase-in more stringent standards for covered fridges and freezers with phase one beginning 360 days from the date of issuance of a final regulation in Mexico’s official journal, phase two beginning 720 days from the issuance date, and phase three beginning 1,080 days from the issuance date. During phases one and two certain fridges and freezers would be allowed to comply with the standards of NOM-015-ENER-2012 rather than those of NOM-015-ENER-2017. The proposal would also make certain changes to the current labelling requirements for these products, as well as to various other provisions.