Maintaining Your Business as UK REACH Arrives
Background
On January 1st, 2020, the United Kingdom started the exit process from the European Union and entered into a Transition Period. As the often titled “Brexit” transition period ends on December 31st, 2020, the United Kingdom will no longer be a part of the European Union Customs Union and the European Single Market. Relevant free trade agreements will not be applicable to the UK from January 1st, 2021.
For the chemical industry, an independent chemical regulatory framework, namely the UK REACH, will be officially implemented in the UK next year, as the EU REACH regulations and supervision mechanism will not be applicable then. It means that enterprises manufacturing, selling, importing and distributing chemicals in the UK and the EU will have to face two REACH systems separately.
Interpretation of the UK REACH Transitional Measures
Speaking at the CRAC 2020, Mr. Simon Johnson from the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs introduced the impact of the implementation of the UK REACH on the industry and how enterprises to comply with the new management system and maintain their business in the UK and the EU. According to Mr. Johnson’s speech, actions have been taken when establishing UK REACH to minimize the impact on the chemical supply chains, including
- Mirroring EU REACH as much as possible
- Providing transitional measures, etc.
However, there are still obstacles for enterprises to make sure they are in compliance with the new UK REACH requirements, including
- Complex transitional measures for enterprises with different trade roles,
- Implementation of Northern Ireland Protocol, etc.
Click here to read more critical points of Mr. Johnson’s speech, which focus on the interpretation of the transitional measures and help enterprises better understand the UK REACH and comply with relevant compliance requirements.
* The materials (video and ppt) of the presentation are available now. You can click here to register our CRAC-HCF Forum and then go to the download section of the Live Conference Hall to get them if there is a need.
