TECHNICAL REGULATIONS ON CLOTHING LABELING (TEXTILES)

Resolution No. 037/2022, dated June 21, 2022, issued by the Ministry of the Popular Power for National Trade, was published in Official Gazette No. 42.419 of July 15, 2022. Said Resolution contains the Technical Regulations on Clothing Labeling (Textiles) (the “Technical Regulations”), which establish the minimum mandatory requirements that the labels of clothes that are imported, manufactured or commercialized in the national territory must contain.

Find below the most significant aspects of the Technical Regulations:

• Labeling: All clothing items (textiles) manufactured or imported and commercialized in the national territory must have a label that contains in the Spanish language the information specified in the Technical Regulations. Information is established for both labeling with commercial purposes and labeling without commercial purposes.
• Identification: All the national manufacturers or the importers of clothing items (textiles) with commercial purposes must express in the label the composition percentage, the mass by ratio, of the different fibers that form the product in order of predominance of said percentage, until completing 100%, according to the indications established in the Technical Regulations.
• Labeling Requirements: Labeling must be made in the clothing item (textiles) manufacturing or production process, through direct printing or placement of permanently adhered labels, except in the products in which the direct attachment of a label could damage the use or aesthetics of the same or result in loss of its value, according to the Technical Regulations.
• Mandatory Registry: All the national manufacturers or the importers of clothing items (textiles) must be registered with the Mandatory Registry of National Manufacturers and Importers of clothing items (textiles) (the “Mandatory Registry”) to be kept by the Deconcentrated Service of Standardization, Quality, Metrology, and Technical Regulations (Servicio Desconcentrado de Normalización, Calidad, Metrología y Reglamentos Técnicos – “SENCAMER”).
• Registration Certificate: After the registration with the Mandatory Registry, SENCAMER will issue the Certificate of Mandatory Registry of National Manufacturers and Importers of clothing items (textiles), which will contain the registration number assigned and will be valid for one (1) year in the case of labeling with commercial purposes and for three (3) months in the case of labels without commercial purposes; in this latter case, the certificate will be valid only for the purchase invoice or batch.
• Competent authority and control: SENCAMER will be the competent authority in order to commence the relevant administrative proceeding and, when appropriate, to revoke the Mandatory Registry Certificate in the event of breach. Likewise, SENCAMER may inspect the industries, factories, importers or commercial establishments with the purpose of verifying compliance with the Technical Regulations.
• Penalties: SENCAMER and the relevant customs authority will penalize the manufacturers or importers that breach the Technical Regulations, in accordance with the Law of the Venezuelan System for Quality.
• Responsibilities: The national manufacturers or the importers of clothing items (textiles) must provide all companies responsible for the chain of commercialization of their products with a copy of the Mandatory Registry Certificate. Likewise, the Technical Regulations establish that formal or informal merchants must demand from their suppliers that the clothing items (textiles) bear the labels with the information required and they are jointly and severally liable in case of breach.
• Prohibition: A prohibition is established against the manufacture, entry or commercialization in the national territory of clothing items (textiles) that do not comply with the provisions of the Technical Regulations.
• Repeal: Joint Resolution of the Ministry of Finance No. 1.178 and the Ministry of Production and Trade No. 395, published in Official Gazette No. 37.533 of September 23, 2002 and published again, due to an error, as Resolution No. 440, in Official Gazette No. 37.549 of October 15, 2002, was repealed, which Resolution established the minimum mandatory information that the labels of all type of clothing items (textiles) commercialized in the national territory must contain.

The Resolution will become effective upon publication in the Official Gazette.

In order to access the Technical Regulations, please click here.

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