Hazardous chemicals – rules on export and import

KEY POINTS

Scope

• The regulation applies to:
  • hazardous chemicals listed under the Rotterdam Convention;
  • chemicals that are banned or severely restricted within the EU;
  • chemicals that are exported.
• It does not cover:
  • narcotics;
  • radioactive materials;
  • waste;
  • chemical weapons;
  • food and food additives;
  • feed;
  • genetically modified organisms and some medicines;
  • chemicals exported for research or analysis in quantities unlikely to affect human health or the environment.
• The regulation requires proper labelling and packaging of chemicals when they are exported from an EU Member State.
• Annex I contains the lists of chemicals (pesticides and industrial chemicals) that are subject to certain obligations when exported.
• Hazardous chemicals can either be exported on their own or blended into a mixture or article.
• This regulation recasts and replaces Regulation (EC) No 689/2008 and updates some procedures and terminology that needed to be brought into line with other EU rules.
• It involves the European Chemicals Agency established by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (see summary) in implementing the legal requirements.

How it works

• The regulation implements the two main procedures of the convention, i.e. the prior informed consent procedure and information exchange. It includes export notification in order to inform countries about the trade in certain chemicals, but it also goes further than the convention, for example by applying the export procedures to all countries, irrespective of whether they are parties to the convention.
• The prior informed consent procedure allows importing parties to the convention to inform exporting parties on whether they agree to imports of the hazardous chemicals listed in the convention. The regulation requires the explicit consent of the importing country for more chemicals than those listed in the convention.
• Each chemical listed in the convention has a decision guidance document to help governments make a more informed decision. All parties are required to take a decision on allowing imports – known as an import response – and the regulation ensures that import responses are respected for EU exports.
• Under the information exchange mechanism, each party must notify the convention’s Secretariat when banning a chemical, and must notify the importing parties when it is exported. The regulation establishes the export notification procedure for EU exports of such chemicals to all importing countries.
• All chemicals intended for export must be labelled and packaged according to certain standards and accompanied by basic safety information on a safety data sheet.
• Each Member State must set up a designated national authority to be responsible for implementing the regulation.
• The European Commission and Member States share responsibility within the convention, in particular with regard to:
  • technical assistance;
  • information sharing;
  • matters relating to dispute settlement.

Implementation of Regulation (EU) No 649/2012

In 2018, the Commission published a report and a staff working document on the operation of Regulation (EU) No 649/2012. The report concluded that the procedures established by the regulation had worked well and contributed to achieving its objectives.