On April 3rd, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Standardization Administration of China jointly issued an announcement officially approving the mandatory national standard GB 20400-2026 "Safety Technical Specification for Leather and Fur Products". This standard will completely replace the 2006 version, which has been in effect for nearly 20 years, and will be officially enforced from April 1st, 2027, without any grace period. It will comprehensively reshape the safety management system of China's leather industry and promote the industry's transformation towards standardization, high quality, and internationalization.
As the "basic law of safety" for the leather industry, the new national standard represents a comprehensive upgrade in terms of scope of control, indicator requirements, and regulatory intensity. It fully aligns with top international compliance standards such as EU REACH and OEKO-TEX®, ensuring that Chinese leather products are in line with international market standards. Specifically, the new national standard, for the first time, categorizes leather and fur products into three classes—A, B, and C—based on their usage scenarios, implementing tiered and stringent regulations: Class A, products for infants aged 36 months and under, faces the strictest controls; Class B, products that come into direct contact with human skin, includes underwear, belts, shoe linings, gloves, and the inner lining of bags; Class C, products that do not come into direct contact with skin, includes outerwear, furniture leather, decorative leather, and outer packaging.
Regarding the control of hazardous substances, the new standard retains the veto item of "decomposable carcinogenic aromatic amine dyes ≤30mg/kg" from the old standard, while adding several new hazardous substance control indicators, with significantly stricter limits. Among these, free formaldehyde has specific limits set for each product category, and hexavalent chromium, phthalates (6P), and short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCP) are officially included in the control, fully aligning with the EU REACH regulations and plugging product safety loopholes at the source.
Meanwhile, the new national standard sets higher requirements for production and the supply chain. It stipulates that complete and compliant records must be maintained for all processes in leather production, including wet tanning, dyeing, printing, and finishing, to ensure traceability of the production process. For raw hides and chemical auxiliaries, qualified testing reports must be provided to control product safety from the source. Furthermore, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the General Administration of Customs, and major e-commerce platforms will establish a joint sampling inspection mechanism to conduct comprehensive sampling inspections of leather and fur products. From April 1, 2027, products that fail the inspection will be immediately removed from shelves and recalled, and companies will be fined 3-5 times the value of the goods. In serious cases, their production and operation licenses will be revoked.
For Chinese leather goods export companies, completing the new national standard testing and upgrading production processes ahead of schedule is not only a necessary requirement to avoid the risks of domestic sales being taken off the shelves and exports being hindered, but also a key measure to seize high-end markets such as the EU and ASEAN and enhance order competitiveness. For global buyers, the new Chinese national standard certification is both a double endorsement of product safety and quality and a core access certificate to the Chinese market, which will further promote Chinese leather products to the global high-end market.
