India Regulations on Imported Chemicals (Circular No. 15/2023) has taken effect since October 1, 2023. Originally, the regulation would take effect on July 1, 2023, but has been delayed to October 1. On September 30 2023, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs in India issued Circular No.23/2023, which made the following modifications to sections (4.1) and (4.2) of Circular No.15/2023

On August 10, 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Environment (MOE) published Notice No.2023-183 revising the volume of toxic, restricted, prohibited, and permitted substances in accordance with the Regulations on the Implementation of the Chemical Substance Management Act. The revision this time aims to enhance the management of chemicals and safeguard public health and the environment.

On August 25, 2023, the European Commission released the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1656 amending Regulation (EU) No 649/2012. 35 chemicals (27 pesticides and 8 industrial chemicals) were added to Annex I of (EU)2023/1656. Currently, there are 295 entries in the Annex I.

On September 8, 2023, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW), the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) jointly published a notice on the declaration schedule for the manufacturing and import of new chemical substances in 2024, bringing important information to industries in the chemical sector. In accordance with laws on chemical substance review and manufacturing, enterprises must make a declaration according to the regulations before manufacturing or importing new chemical substances to obtain relevant determination notice, so as to undergo review on the properties of the chemical substance.

In this article, CHEMTREC provides a snapshot of the complex emergency telephone number requirements around the world and points out the challenges of complying with ever-changing supply and transport requirements for emergency response provision.

On August 10, 2023, the Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry officially published an announcement concerning three substances newly listed as prohibited substances at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-11), as the Class I Specified Chemical Substances in the Chemical Substances Control Law.

On July 21, 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Environment published Notice No. 2023-436 to partly revise the enforcement rules of the Chemical Substances Control Act. This revision primarily aims to address challenges faced by hazardous chemical operators with less than 30 employees in attracting professional talents and to improve shortcomings in the existing system.

Recently, India made the significant decision that it will enforce stringent quality control orders (QCOs) on Polypropylene (PP) materials for molding and extrusion as well as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) homopolymers. In accordance with the latest QCO, PP and PVC should be included in the BIS mandatory certification list, to ensure that domestically produced and imported PP and PVC products meet stringent requirements and offer consumers safer and more reliable products.

On June 18, 2023, the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER) published a Notice on amending the guidance for volatile organic compounds content, containers, and labels. In this Notice, exemptions for the following four substances used as lacquer thinners were partly canceled.

Enterprises face significant challenges in chemical compliance due to the frequent updates of chemical regulations and the numerous regulatory lists issued by different authorities, particularly in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. To help chemical companies better understand these regulations, their compliance risks and regulatory obligations in APAC countries, the CIRS Group has developed ChemRadar, which integrates our existing Asia-Pacific Chemical Inventory Search System (APCISS) tool and provides some useful new features. On August 18, we are pleased to officially launch this free-to-use tool!