REACH Viewed by ChemChina
By Ye Jianhua, Director of the Policy and Regulation Department, ChemChina
Judging from the statistical data today, the amount of chemicals exported by ChemChina to the European Union is not very big. The European Union is however an important international market and the trade between ChemChina and the European Union will expand rapidly. ChemChina should therefore also be familiar with REACH.
   In terms of experiences gained by ChemChina to cope with REACH, first of all enterprises should know well their own products and raw materials used in the production, make an analysis to the sales of their products, especially the sales in markets of the European Union and then decide on whether giving up markets of the European Union for some products on the basis of cost and benefit evaluation. If enterprises decide not giving up markets of the European Union, they should actively conduct pre-registration. It pre-registration is completed in the period from June 1st, 2008 to December 1st, 2008 enterprises will become potential registers and can participate in material information exchange forums. Through information exchange they can avoid redundant tests and reduce inspection expenses. They can also share expenses with other enterprises. In this way the inspection and registration cost in enterprises can be greatly reduced.
   As supervision standards for chemicals were relatively low before, some outdated production processes, technologies and units have managed to exist for long time. With the implementation of green regulations such as REACH, supervision standards for chemicals will surely get higher and higher and some outdated production processes, technologies and units will be restricted. Enterprises should therefore accelerate the elimination of outdated production processes, technologies and units, use advanced production processes, technologies and units through independent innovation, integrated innovation and importation/digestion/innovation and manufacture healthy and environment-friendly products conforming to REACH standards to replace chemicals restricted in markets of the European Union.