What REACH Means for Importers
The first difficulty for an importer lies in the fact that manufacturers outside the EU may be reluctant to divulge the content of their products. This is understandable as the formulation represents the investment and commercial advantage of the manufacturer. Under REACH however, it is the importers’ responsibility for ensuring compliance, not that of the non-EU supplier of the goods. If for example, a major retailer in the EU imports a range of goods from manufacturers outside the EU then the retailer is responsible for the totality of the chemicals that are being imported, not just the amount of chemical being imported per product. A retailer may for example, bring in several hundred different types of products during a 12-month period. Each of those may contain potentially a number of common ingredients; sodium lauryl ether sulphate for example, may be found in shampoo, bath and shower gels, toothpaste, household cleaners, washing up liquid, car cleaning products and so on. In any one product-range it is possible that the amount of SLES imported may be below the one tonne per importer, per year, amount that triggers a REACH obligation, but if the total amounts of SLES that are bought into the EU across the range of imports are considered, it may be that a single retailer may be importing SLES in the 100 tonne per year range, if not into the thousands.
- For importers therefore, there is a complex requirement to know exactly how much of all chemicals, across all product ranges, they are bringing into the EU. From each supplier therefore, a retailer will need to know:
- How much product they buy on a year-by-year basis from each non-EU supplier
- What the formulation is of each product that they buy so that they can calculate the total amount of each chemical substance that they import across all product ranges.
It will not be enough for a retailer or other importer of multiple products to obtain reassurance that none of the ingredients will require REACH registration from a supplier, as this will not address their overall obligation. Delphic HSE have produced a REACH Tool to assist those companies wishing to calculate their REACH obligation.
If however, companies exporting into the EU appoint an only representative to assume all REACH responsibilities for chemicals that they export to all customers within the EU, the Only Representative, acting on information supplied by the manufacturer, takes on all of the REACH Responsibilities for all chemicals supplied into the EU in quantities greater than one tonne per year. If suppliers appoint an Only Representative, there is no obligation on their customer (the importer) and no requirement to divulge confidential information to anyone other than their representative.
Delphic HSE’s only representative service can maintain confidentiality and ensure regulatory compliance for non-EU suppliers.
Action Required!
At this stage in the REACH process and until 1st June 2008, companies should be concerned about the process of information gathering. Knowledge of the chemicals manufactured and imported is essential and if it is not readily available systems must be established whereby this information can be obtained. It is essential that downstream users of chemicals inform their EU based suppliers of the uses that they are making of chemicals, in order that these uses can be taken into account during the registration process.
It is also essential that downstream users make known to their suppliers that they wish to continue using chemicals. It has already been made clear by some major suppliers that they will not be supporting their entire product portfolio with registration, taking the opportunity to concentrate on core products from which they generate the biggest profit margins. Ensuring continuity of supply will be a significant part of the information exchange process up and down the supply chain. The time to pre-registration is getting shorter by the day.
Those manufacturers and importers who pre-register their substances in the 6-month window between 1st June and 1st December 2008 can then take advantage of the extended time available to complete the registration process – up until 1st June 2018 for low volume, low toxicity substances. If the pre-registration window is missed, then the consequences can be severe; substances will be considered to be “new” chemicals and a full registration must be completed before the substance can be legally marketed in the EU. If this applies to a product already on sale then it must be withdrawn from the market until the registration is complete.
