NPRA ’07: Reach may enhance brand values

27 March 2007 18:08  [Source: ICIS news]

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (ICIS news)--Compliance with the new European chemicals registration process may well prove an advantage to US and other non-European chemical manufacturers, a European parliamentarian said on Tuesday.

 

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a member of the European Parliament representing Germany, told chemical industry executives that as costly and problematic that compliance with the new EU registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals (Reach) may be, the process may enhance brand values.

 

“Many European companies will apply Reach on a global level, not just in Europe,” he said.  “There are good arguments for that approach, I believe,” he added, “because compliance with Reach may be seen as an investment in their trade marks.”

 

Despite the many complaints raised by industry in Europe and the US about the new regime, he said, “Reach will be the yardstick against which the level of your companies’ commitment to environmental standards will be measured”.

 

Successful registration of a chemical product under Reach may become the global benchmark for environmental compliance, Lambsdorff said, not only in Europe but elsewhere in the world, in developing and developed countries alike. 

 

He said government representatives from China and Japan already are in discussion with EU officials in Brussels, Belgium about the possible application of Reach-like regulations in their nations.

 

He said that Reach may attain a level of global acceptance such that “non-compliance with Reach in some markets, although perfectly legal, may therefore contain a significant risk at a later stage”.

 

Lambsdorff spoke at the 32nd annual National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) petrochemicals conference.  The conference concludes on Tuesday.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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