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The drafts of K-REACH subordinate statutes, the Presidential Decree (also known as the Enforcement Decree) and the Ministerial Decree (also known as the Enforcement Rules) were issued for public consultation by Korea’s Ministry of Environment (MoE) on 18 Feb 2014. These two documents detail management of chemicals and downstream products, and specify and elucidate the registration requirements and any possible registration exemptions, etc. Opinions regarding Presidential and Ministerial decrees of K-REACH can be submitted until 31 Mar 2014.
All the information disclosed in MoE’s public hearing on 27 Dec 2013 has been included in the drafts. For details, please see Chemlinked news release on 7 Jan 2014. Apart from that information, other specifications are expounded in Table 1.
Table 1. Briefing of Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree
Subject | Details |
Chemical Substance Evaluation Committee | Committee member is assigned for 2 years and their terms can be extended |
Specialized Committees | Hazard Evaluation Committee, Management Committee of High Risk Concerned Products and Socioeconomic Analysis Committee will be set up with no more than 10 members in each committee |
Chemical subject to registration exemption | - Chemical substances for R&D purposes - Low concerned polymers with specific characteristics (details to find in Article 10 of the Presidential Decree) |
Chemical subject to simplified registration | - New chemical substances manufactured or imported below 1 tonne per year will be subject to simplified registration, with an expected tonnage threshold of 0.1 tonne in 2020; - Chemical substances deemed to be non-hazardous (details to find in Article 12 of the Presidential Decree) |
Annual report | - Substance tonnage & usage information of previous year need to be submitted by 30 April - Any changes, e.g. name, location, contact information of manufacturers, importers and sellers, and the chemical’s uses information should be reported to the local environmental administrations within a month |
Confirmation of registration | - Registration dossiers will be reviewed and registrants will be informed on the completeness of registration information within 30 days - Simplified registration for new substances will be reviewed in 3 days (7 days if comprehensive review is required) |
Products containing hazardous chemicals | - Product notification is required for manufacturers or importers if the hazardous chemical substances content contained in the product exceed 1 ton per year (tonnage is calculated from 1 Jan ~ 31 Dec) - 0.1% weight ratio threshold of hazardous substance is re-adopted in Ministerial Decree in order to be consistent with EU REACH. |
High risk concerned products | - NIER will be responsible for risk assessment of product - NIER will work out a risk assessment plan according to the category of high risk products every two years - NIER will report to the MoE the risk assessment results of the previous year by 31 March |
OR | - OR must have chemical knowledge - 3 years and more of experience of chemical management |
For SMEs preferential terms will be applied ease regulatory compliance and financial burdens on SMEs. The reduced administration fee will be levied on SMEs as specified in Table 2.
Table 2. Administrative Fee Required for K-REACH
Item | Administrative Fee (USD) | ||
Standard (USD) | SMEs (USD) | ||
Chemical registration application | Simplified registration for new chemical substance | 93.12 | 46.56 |
Other registration except for point 1 | 186.24 | 93.12 | |
Chemical registration exemption confirmation | 46.56 | 27.94 | |
Registration modification application | 46.56 | 27.94 | |
Application for approval to use the result of hazard evaluation for the purpose of registration or hazard examination of chemical substance in other countries | 18.62 | 9.31 | |
Notification of product containing hazardous substance | 93.12 | 46.56 | |
Application of exemption confirmation for notification of product containing a hazardous substance | 46.56 | 27.94 | |
