US chems need business-critical approach to Reach

30 January 2007 20:31  [Source: ICIS news]

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (ICIS news)--US producers should respond to the new European Union (EU) chemical registration plan as a top priority, business-critical matter affecting their operations, customers and suppliers, a US legal specialist said on Tuesday.

 

Robert Matthews, an attorney specialist on the newly enacted EU programme for registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach), advised industry executives to “elevate Reach compliance from the environment, health and safety [EHS] departments in your firms to the level of a business development unit reporting directly to the company president”.

 

Direct supervision by a chemical company’s chief executive is necessary, Matthews said, because US corporate compliance with Reach “will require significant, top-level decisions that will impact your company’s product selection, exports, suppliers and customers and use of your products by customers.”

 

Matthews, a partner in the Washington-based law firm, McKenna Long & Aldridge, told industry executives they should take immediate steps to organise their compliance response.  He urged that they:

• Develop an overview of which Reach obligations may apply to the company’s products, customers and suppliers;
• Ensure strict executive responsibility and accountability along with adequate funds for managing the company’s compliance response;
• Make strategic decisions about substances, products and suppliers well in advance of the June 2008 deadline for making pre-registration filing with the EU for the company’s existing products; and 
• Orient the company’s research and development (R&D) efforts in the context of Reach so that if any products are threatened by Reach blacklisting, the company can transition in time to alternative substances.

Speaking at a two-day conference on US compliance obligations under Reach, Matthews warned that US chemical producers must be prepared to pre-register their existing products with the EU in the June-December 2008 period or risk having their products ineligible for Reach approval in the multi-year authorisation period that is to follow.

 

Co-sponsored by the American Chemistry Council and the Canadian Chemical Producers Association, the Reach compliance conference ends on Wednesday.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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