NewsBrief
No.44 - December 2003		TM

Editorial

Year Three of the New Millennium has delivered both the “Best and the Worst” to the global chemical industry.

The prolonged downturn in the cyclical global economy has forced multi-national chemical suppliers into further restructuring in the face of poor Commodity prices. Increased investment to establish or secure opportunities in new markets has been somewhat overshadowed by emerging regulatory requirements with long term implications for chemical associations, and chemical suppliers, stakeholders, and Contractors.

This year's “Highest Importance and Far-reaching Achievement” Award should have gone to the completion of the UNEP Global Harmonisation System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS), which the 47 International Council of Chemical Associations

(ICCA) member countries are committed to implementing by 2007. Instead, the industry has had to divert precious energy and scarce resources into addressing the severe implications of the European Commission's controversial Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) chemical control legislation.

Although pro-actively supportive of measures designed to eliminate or minimise the risks associated with chemicals. ICCA members believe the REACH legislation is fundamentally flawed, unduly costly, inefficient and impractical. Even worse, many experts consider REACH to be totally unnecessary!

Critics point out the potentially damaging effects REACH will have on activities ranging from global trade and scientific innovation, while substantially increasing company compliance costs. The latest REACH draft contains some modest improvements, but fails to provide an acceptable solution to the most serious shortcomings.

The ICCA says imposing higher costs on chemical manufacturers simply frustrates ICCA and national Association projects like the Long Range Research Initiative (LRI), the Child Health Research Project and the High Production Volume (HPV) Chemicals Project; voluntary global chemical industry initiatives recently applauded by the 2002 Sustainable Development Conference in Johannesburg.

A better understanding and wider recognition of these important global industry initiatives would have revealed REACH as largely unnecessary.