WTO Notifies Members on Vietnam Technical Regulation for Safety of Hazardous Chemicals

On October 6^th 2020, WTO issued a series of notifications to release 10 national technical regulations on chemicals or chemical products and solicit comments from member countries, including the National technical regulation on safety in the process of producing, storage, transportation and use of hazardous chemicals - General regulation ^[1]. Comments shall be submitted within 60 days since the issuance of the notifications. These regulations are proposed to adopt in December of 2020 and enter into force in 2021.

The national technical regulation on safety of hazardous chemicals – general regulation specifies general requirements for safety in production, storage, transportation and use of dangerous chemicals. It is applicable to organizations and individuals involved in production, storage, transportation and use of dangerous chemicals in the territory of Vietnam and other related organizations and individuals. Key points of this regulation are shown below:

• The regulation provides reference national technical regulations for the manufacturing and transport of hazardous chemical, as well as those for occupational safety. (For example, the classification and labelling of chemicals shall be conducted according to Circular No.32/2017/TT-BCT)

• For the manufacturing of hazardous chemicals, the regulation specifies the requirements for design of workshops, chemical classification and labelling, packaging, and special requirements for toxic chemicals manufacturing.

• For the storage of hazardous chemicals, the regulation specifies general requirements for all hazardous chemicals and special requirements for flammable chemicals, explosive chemicals, corrosive chemicals, and toxic chemicals

• For the transport of hazardous chemicals, the requirements for loading and unloading, safety notices during transport are emphasized.

• The annex of the regulation provides information sheets on the storage compatibility of hazardous chemicals.

Besides the general regulation on safety of chemical business, 10 technical regulations on industrial chemicals or chemical products are issued by WTO in October for comments from members, too. These regulations provide technical requirements, test methods, quality control, or management for chemicals or chemical components in products. Titles of the 10 technical regulations are shown below:

• National technical regulations on quality of industrial sodium hydroxide,

• National technical regulations on mercury content in fluorescent lamp,

• National technical regulation on the limits of total lead in paints,

• National technical regulations on quality of industrial Ammonia,

• National technical regulations on quality of Poly Aluminum Chloride,

• National technical regulations on potassium chlorate/ potassium nitrate/ potassium perchlorate/ sodium chlorate/ sodium nitrate for industrial explosive materials production.