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The newest amendments to K-REACH Act were passed by South Korea’s Cabinet on 8 Aug 2017 and are still waiting final approval from the National Assembly. If approved, it will make K-REACH almost identical to EU REACH, which is a significant deviation from the current regulatory mechanisms.
Since consensus wasn’t reached during the National Assembly on 23 Nov 2017 at its regular plenary session, the proposal hasn’t been passed as planned before the end of 2017.
Fortunately, the proposal was included into an extraordinary meeting of the National Assembly held on 18 Jan 2018, during which the amendments were approved by the sub-committee of Environment and Labor Committee. The Environment and Labor Committee is one of the standing committees of the National Assembly, which examines bills under its respective jurisdictions. The final review will be opened at the next plenary session of the National Assembly in the first half of 2018.
It is proposed that the K-REACH amendments become effective on 1 Jul 2018, however considering there is still some uncertainty in the passage of the proposal and the revision of its supporting Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules, a delay in final implementation is inevitable. The revised K-REACH is expected to enter into force on 1 Jan 2019.
The major legislative progress of the current K-REACH proposal is summarized as below:
28 Dec 2016, issued by MoE Public Notice No.2016-869 for public comments
9 Jan 2017, notified to the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade under WTO for comments
8 Aug 2017, passed by South Korea’s Cabinet
23 Nov 2017, failed to be passed by National Assembly
18 Jan 2018, passed by the sub-committee of National Assembly’s Environment and Labor Committee
K-REACH was promulgated on 1 Jan 2015 and was last revised on 27 Jan 2016. The amendment focused on issues concerning use of hazard evaluation results and supports to SMEs, etc. The updates will be effective on 28 Jan 2017 (CL news).
It should be noted that the new proposal is under review and will need to be approved before implementation.
