According to Article 18 of the Regulation of New and Existing Chemical Substances Registration, all existing chemicals manufactured or imported over 0.1 ton per year are subject to Phase 1 of Taiwan’s existing chemical registration (CL expert article). The preregistration initialized from 1 Sep 2015 and ended on 31 Mar 2016. After that, Taiwan launched late preregistration (CL news).
However, late preregistration is only applicable to existing chemical substances manufactured or imported over 100kg/year for the first time after 31 March. For manufacturers or importers meeting the criteria for pre-registration that missed the deadline, if they still want to continue importation/production activities, late pre-registration is inapplicable. Instead a supplementary pre-registration should be applied for according to the operation guidance issued on 10 May of 2016.
A formal statement is necessary to be delivered to the registration center by post, which will grant the registrant another chance to apply for the supplementary pre-registration. The closed online submission system for pre-registration will be reopened to this registrant and pre-registration dossier can be submitted accordingly. NT$100 will be charged as an administrative fee for the review work of the registration dossier and 7 working days may be taken to get approval. After obtaining the preregistration No., the existing chemical substances can be manufactured or imported.
For registrants that missed the pre-registration deadline and do not engage in further manufacture or importation until the supplementary pre-registration is completed, the authority is still likely to impose punitive measures on them according to Paragraph 4, Article 35-1 of Taiwan TCSCA. However, the authority will exercise discretion with regard to penalties (probably less than NT$30,000) in this case.
However, for those that missed the preregistration deadline and continued manufacturing or importing after 1 Apr, even if they later self-reported and completed the supplementary preregistration, no lenient punishments will offered. They will face a fine ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 according to Paragraph 2, Article 35-1 of Taiwan TCSCA.
In the worst case where manufacture or importation continues in violation of pre-registration requirements while supplementary pre-registration is still not be applied for, a fine ranging from NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 will definitely be charged. The IT platform of Chemical Commodity Importation Pre-Confirmation (CCIP) was introduced in Apr. The registration No. for imported chemical substances should be submitted, which will facilitate future inspection.
At present punishment fees are still under internal discussion. For example, for one company the number of existing chemical substances without pre-registration will be a factor for determination of how much the fine is. In addition, the deadline of supplementary pre-registration hasn’t been set, which also needs further discussion. Stakeholders should act as soon as possible to legalize the manufacture or importation.
