As a non-EU company, why should I care?

Here’s why: Even though you might be established in a non-EU country, at least some of your business partners (or your business partners’ partners) may be based in the European Union. Therefore, while implementation of REACH may be out of your direct line of sight, you still need to pay attention to the details of this regulation because someone downstream in your sales chain might be affected, which would impact you directly.

The major points you should know about REACH

• No EU market access will be possible for phase-in substances from December 1^st 2008, onwards, unless the substance has been pre-registered between June 1^st and November 30^th 2008, and will be registered before the final registration deadline.
• Pre-registration / registration is for substances, NOT products, as a product may contain more than one substance, and all of its substances would need pre-registration / registration.
• Non-EU companies are not allowed to pre-register / register substances, but they can appoint an Only Representative in the EU to do the pre-registration / registration.
• If a non-EU company exports substances, either as such or contained in preparations or in articles¹, to the EU, the importing European partner has the obligation to pre-register / register these substances. The importing EU partner is only released from his pre-registration / registration obligation if an Only Representative has been appointed and the appointing non-EU company has informed his importing EU customer(s) accordingly.
• Even if Dow has stated in its web tool REACH information on Dow products that a substance is going to be pre-registered / registered by its legal entity(ies) in the EU, this only covers substances manufactured by Dow in the EU or imported by Dow into the EU. The latest interpretation of the Only Representative under REACH (June 08, 2008) suggests that substances produced by Dow outside of the EU and indirectly exported to the EU by our non-EU customers (e.g. as part of a formulation) may be covered as well by an Only Representative if assigned to cover Dow imports. Dow is currently investigating to make use of this new possibility in the most efficient way. Through frequent updates of the information on this webpage we will keep our customers informed on the further evolution of this possibility.

 

¹In articles only if the substance in the article is intended to be released.

Got it? Test yourself!

If Dow has stated on its industry-leading web tool “REACH Information on Dow Products” that a substance will be pre-registered by its legal entity in the EU, does that automatically mean that, as a non-EU Dow customer, I may export this Dow substance to the EU?

 

 

ANSWER: Unfortunately not! Why? Because these specific imports are not covered by the registration application.