Taiwan issued on Aug 28th a FAQ document[1] containing 420 frequently-asked questions collected from nine industry focused seminars held from March to May this year addressing issues relating to the revised New and Existing Chemical Registration Regulation (Chinese version[2], and English version[3]).
The amendments of the Regulation were promulgated on Mar 11th, 2019. The standard registration of 106 priority existing chemical substances at or above one tonne a year is required from Jan 1st, 2020 if companies wish to continue manufacturing/importing them. In addition, annual reporting of the registered new and existing substances is mandatory from 2020. Other notable amendments have been reported by ChemLinked (CL news[4]).
Relevant companies may not be ready and need guidance on what to do for the associated registration and reporting obligations. To relieve the industry’ anxiety, the authority has held several seminars for policy dissemination, as well as providing important dialogue with the industry. The seminar materials can be accessed here[5]. However, the most important Guidance for Standard Registration is still a draft version and waits further development.
Currently the FAQs document is only available in traditional Chinese. It provides answers to the following aspects:
Regulatory mechanism: 90 questions
Registration operation (including the submission system, change/repeal registration, etc.): 124 questions
Registration number (in place of the registration document): 2 questions
Joint registration and SIEF-like platform: 34 questions
Standard registration and supporting measures of designated priority existing chemical substances: 89 questions
Annual reporting: 59 questions
Others (including cross-ministerial cooperation) : 22 questions
The authority will keep updating the FAQ document upon receiving additional questions from seminars.