How should you be preparing for K-REACH?
Earlier this year, we caught up with speaker Junho Lee, Director at CIRS Group Korea, to ask him about the revision of K-REACH and what industry can do to prepare.
Chemical Watch: What will be the effect of the major revision of K-REACH?
Junho Lee: The major amendment of K-REACH will give industry more responsibility to ensure the safety of their products. The main way this will happen is by the evaluation of existing chemicals and polymers in stages from this year until 2031.
It will also allow authorities to more closely monitor and have greater control over chemical substances available in South Korea.
Chemical Watch: Can we use the approaches used for EU REACH with K-REACH?
Junho Lee: Most approaches taken for complying with EU REACH can be used with K-REACH. However, there are differences and equivalent data requirements cannot be assumed. For example, we saw some cases where data used for EU REACH was not sufficient for K-REACH registration.
Chemical Watch: How should industry prepare?
Junho Lee: Companies need to be developing their compliance strategy. In particular, industry needs to be aware of the differences between the EU’s and South Korea’s REACH.
One important area of strategy is selecting an Only Representative (OR). Currently, changing an OR is not supported under K-REACH. Re-submission of registration is required where a new OR has been selected.