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On September 26, 2013, the People’s Republic of China State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), in conjunction with other Ministries, issued the much anticipated draft Hazardous Chemicals List, commonly referred to as the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals, for review and comment. Comments on the draft Catalog are due October 31, 2013. Stakeholders with interests in China should review this list now, and assess their business and compliance obligations to avoid business disruption. The draft Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals is available, in Chinese, online.
Background
SAWS, along with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), Ministry of Transport (MoT), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Health and Family Planning Commission, Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), Railway Bureau, and Certificate and Accreditation Administration (CAA), have spent considerable time and effort to issue the revised list. The Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals falls under Decree 591 and is relevant to those companies that are manufacturers, importers, or processors that may use listed chemicals. The draft Catalog includes approximately 3,000 substances, less than the almost 4,000 substances included in the current Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals. Companies will need to obtain a license to produce, import, or use listed substances. While the draft Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals is available only in Chinese, the list can be searched via Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number. Several entries do not have CAS number identifications as they represent groupings, mixtures, or substances that may not have a CAS number. The list should be searched to determine if any substances that may be of interest are present on the list. Once a substance is listed, then other licensing and reporting criteria may be triggered for Chinese manufacturers, importers, and users.
More information concerning the registration requirements for hazardous chemicals is available in our July 26, 2012, memorandum concerning Order Number 53, Measures for the Administration of Registration of Hazardous Chemicals. The memorandum is available online. Hazardous chemicals are also subject to other requirements and must be licensed. More information concerning these requirements is available from The Acta Group.