REGULATION Chemical
Regulation, the European Union and Brexit David Wright, Director General, UKLA
The issue of chemical regulation presents a key issue for many businesses not only based in the UK but also across mainland Europe.
With the advent of the REACH, organisations on both sides of the Channel have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds or euros registering chemical substances and mixtures with the European Chemicals Agency, ECHA. According to guidelines produced by the chemicals agency, under existing regulations only organisations based in the European Union can register products under REACH. The assumption being that entities based in the EU are importing, manufacturing or placing such chemical substances and mixtures onto the European market. And it is this European market that regulators are most concerned about.
Come the day of Brexit, in March 2019, existing registrations held by UK-based companies become ‘non-existent’ and are treated as if they have never been made as UK companies are no longer part of the European Union.
In response, the UK is looking to set up its own chemical regulation programme ’UK REACH’ under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. How far this will replicate the EU REACH programme at the moment is anyone’s guess but it would be erroneous to think that the UK could go it alone on chemical regulation when the world is so interconnected through international trade.
The concept of both a UK and an EU REACH system co-existing raises the issue of dual recognition while seeking to avoid unnecessary duplicate registration and the associated economic and bureaucratic burden this will bring to both UK and European business.
The UK remains the second largest lubricants market in Europe and one of the key destinations for European products and services. Anything that prevents the free
flow of goods and services between the EU and the UK, and vice-versa, can only be detrimental to the wider interest of businesses across the region.
However like many items under Brexit, the issue of chemical regulation is still subject to negotiation and agreement between the EU and the UK. Having settled the ‘divorce bill,’ both parties can move onto look towards the future of their relationship and begin to negotiate a trading agreement. Existing negotiating positions have been determined and published by both the EU and the UK. So where do they stand on the issue?
The UK Government has said that it wants to avoid duplication and have existing registrations recognised. Their Principle A in their Article 50 negotiating document states that ‘goods placed on the Single Market before exit should continue to circulate freely in the UK and the EU, without additional requirements or restrictions.’ The document goes on to say that ‘Principle B: Where businesses have undertaken compliance activities prior to exit, they should not be required to duplicate these activities,’ and ‘approvals, authorisations, certificates and registrations issued prior to exit should continue to be recognised as valid.’
For the European Union the position is similar but not exactly the same. On Page 2 of their negotiating document it states that ’the Withdrawal Agreement should ensure that a good which has been lawfully placed on the single market before the withdrawal date can continue to be made available on the market of the United Kingdom and on the single market after the withdrawal date, i.e. once the United Kingdom has left the single market, under the conditions set out in the relevant Union law on product rules applicable on the withdrawal date.’
What the EU document fails to mention is the situation regarding any new product that a UK-based company seeks to place on the European market after the withdrawal date. However there appears to be a realisation among both parties that businesses must be supported to be able to trade as freely as possible between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The exact nature of their relationship after withdrawal is, as always, still open to discussion, debate and agreement as we move slowly towards the Brexit date in March 2019.
LUBE MAGAZINE NO.143 FEBRUARY 2018 69
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