Pema Group

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), which is mandated to manage and coordinate the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemical substances under the REACH Regulation, has been issuing guidance documents on various topics that provide supplementary information to the actual legal text. The guidance is available at http://reach.jrc.it/guidance_en.htm. ASIAN suppliers should scrutinize the documents as and when they are published or revised, as they provide an element of clarity on how REACH is to be understood and implemented. ECHA has also been preparing a guidance document on articles, which is currently only available in draft form.

As regards the guidance on registration, a whole new section on the only representative has been added (among others) to the revised version, issued in February 2008. Hong Kong exporters should be aware that as non-EU manufacturers they cannot - due to their non-EU status - register substances themselves. However, they can appoint an only representative to carry out the required registration of the substances in the EU. An only representative would then fulfill the REACH obligations which would otherwise lie on importers' shoulders. An only representative can represent one or several non-EU manufacturers.