The EU'S Biggest "Green Barrier" Starts

Since June this year, the European Union's registration, assessment, licensing and Restriction Act (REACH) has entered the pre registration stage.

In the face of the biggest technical barriers to trade set up in the EU, Chinese enterprises have entered the "coping time".

Mei Lingxiao, Minister of research and quarantine REACH development center, said that the REACH law integrates the more than 40 laws and regulations of the past. It is the largest legal system in the European Union. Besides the original regulations, there are 22 implementing rules.

"The 849 page of the statute text, and in the implementing rules, there are more than 2000 pages of a software specification."

REACH regulations impose mandatory registration, assessment and licensing on all chemicals in the EU market and into the EU market and implement safety monitoring.

More strictly, its principle is "a chemical substance, and it is unsafe before it has been proved to be dangerous". This method, similar to the presumption of guilty, involves more than 30 thousand chemicals and gives them a magic spell.

According to statistics from the China Chamber of Commerce for metals, minerals and chemicals, the total import and export volume of China's petroleum and chemicals in 2006 amounted to US $245 billion 730 million, of which the trade volume with the European Union amounted to US $20 billion 819 million, accounting for nearly 10%.

This also accounts for about 10% of the volume of trade between China and the EU.

Therefore, the impact of REACH regulations on Chinese enterprises is not large. It is estimated that the cost of each chemical substance is about 85 thousand euros, and the cost of each new substance is about 570 thousand euros.

The cost that our enterprises bear annually is 500 million to 1 billion US dollars.

It is predicted that the REACH regulations will increase the cost of China's exports to EU products by about 5%, increase the cost of imports to EU products by about 6%, and import and export volume of chemical products in China and Europe will drop by 10%, and China's gross domestic product will decline by 0.4%.

Moreover, REACH regulations are not only for chemicals, but also for all products that will be used in chemical products. Therefore, household appliances, textile and clothing, footwear, toys, electronics, automobiles and pharmaceuticals will be involved.

Relevant production enterprises also need to inform all kinds of chemicals used in the products.

In June 1, 2007, the REACH regulations, which had been brewing for 6 years, came into effect.

In June 1, 2008, the European Chemicals Management Agency (ECHA), which is responsible for the implementation of regulations, officially opened in Helsinki, capital of Finland. REACH entered the basic free pre registration stage.

At the end of the pre registration phase to the end of November 30th of the same year, during the pre registration of chemicals produced by enterprises, the registration period of 3 years, 6 years or 11 years can be obtained according to the attributes and output of chemical substances, and the EU will normally export to the EU during the pition period.

This has earned time and cost for enterprises to complete the formal registration assessment.

At 4:18 on June 1st in Helsinki, the China Inspection and quarantine REACH solution center submitted the first pre registration dossier for chemicals two chlorpyridine to the REACH-IT online system, which is responsible for pre registration of REACH, for Quzhou Heng Shun Chemical Co., Ltd.

The center then submitted 75 pre registration dossiers for chemicals, most of which were "global first".

Two chlorpyridine is a chemical raw material for the production of shampoo active ingredients, while Heng Shun is the world's leading producer of two chlorinated pyridine, which is supplied by several well-known global chemicals manufacturers.

Heng Shun company staff Yang Wei told reporters that the company knew the REACH regulations the year before last, and sent people to participate in the training of relevant departments last year.

"If we don't register in advance, our door to the European market will be sealed."

Zhejiang three yuan holding group company is a well-known textile printing and dyeing enterprise in China. Such enterprises are also large users of chemical substances.

Dr. Wang Wei, vice president of the company, said that on average, a company has 50 chemicals that need to be notified.

"At present, our database has been built, and we are also carrying out Okeo-Tex certification for European eco textiles, which can better cope with REACH regulations through certification."

China petrochemical giant Sinopec is also paying close attention to REACH regulations.

Sinopec, Lv Changjiang, director and senior engineer of REACH Office of EU, recently attended the fourteenth China International Chemical fiber conference in Hangzhou, revealed that Sinopec has completed all pre registration preparations and is closely following the update of regulations and related guidelines.

Li Jingning, deputy director of the Zhejiang provincial economic and Trade Commission's technical equipment and start office, said that there are two ways to guide enterprises to deal with the REACH regulations in Zhejiang. The small and medium enterprises mainly adopt the national inspection platform of the China Inspection and quarantine REACH solution center, which is located in Hangzhou by the AQSIQ, while large enterprises such as three yuan holding independently build independent technology platforms.

"Our office phone will be hard to get out of in June, and every phone call should be consulted by twenty or thirty companies a day."

Lin Longhai, Minister of the external inspection department of China's inspection and quarantine REACH solution center, said that by the end of May, the number of contracted rooms in the center was more than 600, and now it has increased to nearly 1000.

"Starting from April this year, the degree of corporate concern has obviously increased."

The degree of corporate concern is heating up both the factors of conscious trade barriers and the feedback from outside markets.

Wang Wei told reporters that three yuan group a few years ago, a group of textiles have been banned by the use of banned azo dyes and the European Union returned a fine, so enterprises attach great importance to technical barriers.

Recently, European customers have also been familiar with the REACH regulations.

"The famous H&M fashion company has asked for the registration code of REACH."

"There are still some enterprises in Zhejiang that do not know the REACH regulations well enough. The boss is not necessarily concerned about such a specific thing, and the subordinates feel it is the boss's business."

Li Jingning said that unlike some of the technical barriers to trade in the EU, some enterprises have been absent from power and responsibility when dealing with REACH regulations.

"In the past, some technical barriers are very clear about power and responsibility, that is, the technical departments, and you can assign three departments to R & D, production and sales in accordance with REACH regulations."

Li Jingning said that these problems seem to be entrepreneurs' lack of awareness, but in fact they are management defects.

"The boss can not understand technology, but if a specific intelligence analysis department can make up for this defect, some enterprises' management level has not yet reached this level."

Some enterprises have conflicting feelings about REACH regulations.

In this regard, Lin Longhai believes that this should be understood from the perspective of green environmental protection.

"After the implementation of the REACH regulations, the EU enterprises are the first ones to be affected. The export prices of chemical intermediates in EU enterprises have increased by 10% to 15%, so we can not simply think that they are only for non EU enterprises."

The EU is the world's largest market for chemical products. In 2006, it accounted for 49% of the world's total exports and accounted for 53% of the world's total exports.

Lin Longhai suggested that enterprises should regard the REACH regulations as an opportunity to "get paid first and benefit" and enter the EU market.

Even if a certain fee is to be paid, there is a cost sharing mechanism in the REACH regulations, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises.

"I was exposed to an adhesive enterprise in Ningbo, which used to export to the Middle East market, but the price competition was too intense.

After being familiar with the REACH regulations, the heads of enterprises are willing to invest 1 million yuan in each product to register for testing in order to enter the EU market.

Lin Longhai said.

Other businesses are wait-and-see about the REACH regulations.

Mei Ling said with laughter, some enterprises see the United States and Japanese counterparts remain unmoved and do not act on their own. They do not know that the management level of chemicals in Japan and the United States is no less than that in the European Union. Now the two countries are playing games with the European Union. Once the agreement is reached, the three parties need only steady docking.

From then on, there will be a situation in which three parties in Europe, the United States and Japan "unite to seek me" and deserve vigilance.

The wrong understanding of pre registration will also bring losses to enterprises.

Experts said that the deadline for pre registration was in November 30th this year, and some enterprises mistakenly thought they could take it slow.

But the more we go to the back, the more businesses and materials that will be registered in the REACH-IT system. Not only may we cause traffic jam, but once we make a mistake in our business, we will miss the deadline before making pre registration, and we can only register fees.

Before entering the EU market without completing the pre registration, the new driver, who has not yet gotten the driver's license, hastily hit the road. In case of "traffic police", it would be very troublesome.