Government Set Up A Platform To Actively Respond To EU REACH Regulations

Recently, the Fujian provincial quality and Technology Supervision Bureau and the Fujian Provincial Department of foreign economic relations and trade jointly commissioned the China WTO / TBT Fujian consultation workstation to undertake the opening of Fujian's "information platform for EU REACH regulations and EUP directive". This is one of the important tasks of the Fujian provincial government for the early deployment and the EU's "REACH" regulations and the "EUP" directive. It aims to help Fujian export enterprises to familiarise themselves with the relevant provisions and working procedures of these two regulations as soon as possible, and to minimize the negative impact on the Fujian export enterprises as soon as possible after the formal implementation of the regulations.

The European Union's chemicals management regulations, which are officially in force in June this year and will be officially launched in June next year, are the two rules for the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals, and the European Union's recently implemented directive on the design of environmentally friendly products for energy consumption (EUP), which will set up new and stricter technical trade standards for products entering the EU market. This will bring about a comprehensive and profound impact on the two laws and regulations of Fujian exporting enterprises seeking to expand the EU's market share. Fujian export enterprises will undoubtedly face more severe market challenges than ever before.

The EU "REACH" act was promulgated in December 2006, and officially came into effect in June 1, 2007.

This regulation is a new law governing the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of chemicals in the European Union. It is also a new technical trade measure involving product quality, human health and ecological environment safety.

After the formal operation of the regulations, chemical raw materials, finished products and finished products that are produced, sold and used more than 1 tons per year in the European Union must be registered in accordance with the chemical components contained in them. At the same time, it is necessary to prove that the chemicals contained in the products do not pose a risk to human health and environment.

Among them, the sale and use of highly specific chemicals require special authorization. Products containing risks that may cause human health and environmental hazards will be completely restricted to all EU markets.

Fujian's trade experts pointed out that this law is only a chemical regulation, but it has a great impact on China's export products.

In addition to the chemical substances themselves, all substances containing chemical substances, such as household appliances, textiles, clothing, leather, shoes, toys, light industrial products, electronics, automobiles, etc., must be certified that the chemicals contained in it are registered and will not pose a hazard to human health and environment.

These commodities are the main products of China's export to the EU, involving more than 70% of Fujian's export products.

According to the statistics of Fujian provincial foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department, the EU is the second largest trading partner of Fujian.

In 2006, Fujian's total exports to the EU reached 7 billion 969 million US dollars, and the total export volume was 19.31%, an increase of 19.85%.

In the field of products directly related to chemicals that are affected by the "REACH" regulation, Fujian exported to the EU a total of 185 million US dollars last year, and 245 export related chemicals directly related to the EU.

Fujian's trade experts estimate that, with the implementation of the EU "REACH" regulations, the registration and evaluation of chemical substances will produce a lot of expenses. Initially estimated, the average registration and assessment fees of each enterprise will be about 3 million to 4 million yuan, resulting in a general increase of 5% of the cost of downstream chemicals in Fujian, and the price of chemical products imported from the EU will generally rise by more than 6%.

In recent years, the EU has introduced many technical trade measures for environmental protection and energy saving, such as the WEEE directive and the relevant regulations (ROHS) to restrict the use of specific hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment. Now, the environmental design directive (EUP) and the "REACH" Regulations of the energy consuming products have been put into effect, which objectively sets up a technical threshold for the export of Fujian products to the EU market. This requires that the export enterprises should continuously improve the health standards established for the human body and environment in the process of producing products, and constantly reduce energy consumption standards.

According to the Fujian Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau and the foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department, the "REACH" regulation covers a wide range. Besides the direct related chemicals and their products, it has the greatest impact on the export of Fujian. Textile industry and footwear industry are also the most influential areas. As for the textile and garment industry and the footwear industry, from raw materials to textile fabrics, and then to finished products, various dyes, finishing agents, flame retardants, coatings, auxiliaries, solvents and gelatinized products will enter into the shoes and footwear products, and will have a "release" role. It should be said that almost every production link will be used chemicals.

The production process may involve multiple enterprises according to the procedures. The sources of chemical raw materials also involve different channels. If the export enterprises need to register raw materials in accordance with the provisions of the "REACH" regulations, the procedures and procedures involved may be very complicated.

At present, Fujian's clothing export enterprises and shoemaking enterprises are mainly concentrated in the coastal areas, basically private enterprises, the scale of enterprises is large and small, products from raw materials to finished products, the division of production process is complex, at present it is very difficult to implement the whole process monitoring.

Due to fierce competition and low profit margins, enterprises will increase their cost and competitiveness if they increase their relevant testing efforts.

Serious consequences may result in the forced withdrawal of its products from the EU market.

At present, many export enterprises in Fujian are not familiar with the "REACH" regulations, nor do they know their registration procedures.

Therefore, the Fujian Quality Supervision Bureau and the provincial foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department recently increased the training of related enterprises.

Ten thousand volumes of publicity materials were distributed free of charge to export enterprises.

The head of the Fujian Provincial Bureau of Quality Supervision Bureau said that clothing and shoemaking enterprises should first familiarize themselves with the contents of the "REACH" regulations, and then fully understand whether the chemical substances contained in their products are restricted substances. If so, they must find other unrestricted and substitute materials as soon as possible.

At present, clothing and shoemaking enterprises should focus on the main difficulties of the "REACH" regulations. First, clothing and shoemaking involve many chemicals and complex material components, so it is difficult to cope with the EU's inspection technology. Two, many garment and shoemaking enterprises in Fujian are small and have no ability to conduct corresponding tests.

Therefore, it is probably an effective way for enterprises to cope with each other and check jointly.

It is reported that the European Union has announced the list of restricted chemicals, and the list will be updated.

The list of highly concerned chemicals has not yet been released, and the list will be released on June 2009 according to the EU timetable.

At present, enterprises can detect their products in advance according to whether they contain PBT substance, namely, permanence, bioaccumulation and toxic substances, whether they contain CMR substances, namely carcinogenic, mutagenesis, reproductive toxicants, and whether they contain VPVB substances, that is, highly persistent and highly bioconcentration substances.

These three chemicals are likely to become highly concerned chemicals. Products containing such substances may be completely prevented from entering the EU market.

The head of the Fujian Provincial Bureau of laws and regulations said that the "REACH" rule has little impact on Fujian's export enterprises in the near future. However, export enterprises must not miss the pre registration procedures for a period of six months from June 1, 2008 to November 30th, which requires enterprises to report only a technical file including the registered chemical substances and their inherent attributes.

According to the current policy, pre registration chemicals can get a pitional period of 3 to 11 years.

Exports will not be significantly affected during this period.

The Fujian provincial government attaches great importance to the impact of the "REACH" Regulations on Fujian's exports. It has asked Fujian foreign trade and Economic Cooperation Department and the Provincial Quality Supervision Bureau to study the Countermeasures in time, strengthened the training and study work of the EU regulations on export enterprises, and hired experts to carry out thematic training for enterprises.

At the same time, as a technical organization set up by the Fujian provincial quality and Technology Supervision Bureau, which specializes in forward-looking research, information bulletin, evaluation and consultation of foreign technical barriers to trade, China's WTO / TBT Fujian consulting workstation has also been entrusted with the State Administration of quality supervision and quarantine to participate in the research on soft science projects of the EU "REACH" regulations.

Its main tasks are to follow the EU's "REACH" regulations, plate relevant documents, compile guidelines for the implementation of enterprises in China, and guide the import and export enterprises in Fujian to carry out relevant technical preparations.