US-EU trade disruptions seen under Reach

18 March 2008 01:27  [Source: ICIS news]

BALTIMORE, Maryland (ICIS news)--Trade between the US and the European Union (EU) will almost certainly be disrupted as the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals (Reach) programme comes into force this year, industry officials said on Monday.

 

US chemical industry leaders gathering at the annual GlobalChem regulatory conference also said the EU was not prepared to implement the massive new chemicals control plan and that the Reach enforcement process would stumble, perhaps forcing postponement of multiple deadlines.

 

Although Reach took formal effect in June 2007, the first of its actual enforcement deadlines is approaching.  Between 1 June and 30 November this year, companies outside Europe that export products into the EU must pre-register their compounds or products with the new European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

 

Exporters who fail to pre-register their products will see those items barred from the EU until the years-long formal process for testing and analysis of product components is completed.

 

“We feel that a lot of our members are still evaluating what they will have to do in order to meet these Reach pre-registration deadlines,” said Bill Allmond, director of government relations for the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA).

 

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual GlobalChem regulatory conference, Allmond said that even among chemical companies that might be well prepared for Reach, there was concern that many of their customers would not be ready by the time the pre-registration process closes at the end of November.

 

“Our members are trying to anticipate that, to anticipate and prevent any possible disruption in trade or the supply chain that might result,” Allmond said.

 

There is mounting concern - reflected in a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey issued last week - that when the Reach pre-registration deadline closes, a large number of US products will be barred from EU countries, triggering a backup in trade and upstream production, including for chemicals.

 

“We think that disruptions and interruption of commerce is inevitable,” Allmond said.

 

However, he added, “Some of us hope that the bureaucratic engines of Reach will slow and that the EU will have to make some adjustments to the schedule."

 

“The EU has set some pretty ambitious deadlines,” Allmond said, noting for example that the EU planned to have individual product identification numbers ready in the second half this year for the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of products and product components for which manufacturers and exporters will seek pre-registration.

 

“We have a strong feeling that they cannot meet these deadlines,” Allmond said.

 

Co-sponsored by SOCMA and the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the three-day conference on global chemicals regulations runs through Wednesday.

By: Joe Kamalick
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