Brussels, 12/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - EU trading partners have taken up the battle against the proposal for a REACH regulation on the registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemical products within the EU. In a joint press release published on 8 June, the diplomatic missions of thirteen EU trading partners - South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Korea, United States, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore and Thailand - express their “concerns with REACH's workability, its potential effects on international trade, and the opacity of the regulatory process and implementation preparations”. They call on the EU to go back to the drawing board. At the origin of this united discontent are the Americans who, on 8 June, welcomed the ambassadors and high representatives of the countries concerned at a consultation meeting in Brussels. “Developing countries highlighted concerns regarding the cost of REACH especially on SMEs” and all “uniformly agreed that modifications reducing the potentially disruptive impact of REACH on international trade and improving its workability would improve the legislation and would facilitate its eventual implementation”, the press release states, calling on the EU to use the second reading in Parliament to address the “problematic aspects of the proposal”. They also highlighted the need for “more stakeholder input” in the process.
The above countries are hoping for an authorisation process for chemical products that does not suffocate the competitive environment, and which is more workable. They call on the EU to identify “unnecessary overlaps and inconsistencies, perhaps revisiting the scope of authorisation and registration”. For example, they pointed out that, by applying the authorisation procedure to everyday bulk commodities such as ores and ore concentrates “this will serve only to damage EU interests and those of exporting countries, many of whom are developing countries”. Trading partners also raised questions about the environmental value of certain registration and notification requirements which, they say, would cause disparities between EU and non-EU businesses. For example, many countries questioned the environmental value of registering reacted monomers in polymers when the low-risk polymers have no registration requirements. Such monomer registrations would not provide the Agency with relevant risk data for the final polymer since the reacted monomers could no longer exhibit their original characteristics, the signatories state, suggesting REACH would benefit from harmonisation with existing international regulatory efforts such as accepting test data developed under OECD guidelines and other international fora.