G/TBT/W/542  
 
20 June 2018  
(18-3885) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
KOREA — REGULATION ON REGIST RATION AND EVALUATIO N OF CHEMICAL MATERI AL  
STATEMENT BY THE UNI TED STATES TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS T O TRADE  
20 AND 21  JUNE 2018 
The following communication, dated 20 June 2018 , is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the United States . 
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1.  Thank you for your 11 June TBT notification of the Revised version of the Enforcement Decree 
and the Revised version of the Enforcement Rules of the Act on Regist ration and Evaluation, etc. of 
Chemical Substances.  We ask you to take all comments received into serious consideration, and to 
all issue English -language translations and guidance.  
2.  While we appreciate the grace periods announced in your 11 June notice, we  nonetheless ask 
you to consider pushing out the implementation date of 1 January 2019 to give companies 
adequate time to prepare, as we are still waiting on formal notification and publication of the 
implementing guidelines.   
3.  We thank you for eliminating the annual reporting requirement, but still have concerns about 
reported features such as: possible penalties for the non -registration of substances of up to 5% of 
the gross sales of the entire company; required registration for all substances with the pot ential to 
cause serious danger to human health or the environment; and required registration for 
substances where the total annual volume on the market is one ton or above (or 100 kgs or above 
for new substances).  
4.  A particular concern is that AREC 's polyme r requirements do not correspond to the 
requirements of the Korea Industrial Safety & Health Act (ISHA).  In this respect, we ask for careful 
consideration of the March 6 and 19 March US  chemicals industry letters sent to the Ministry of 
Employment and Labo r as well as the Ministry of Environment.  
5.  To address the confusion and uncertainty that have made compliance so challenging up to now 
– particularly in light of various Korean announcements and amendments in recent weeks - we 
again strongly encourage you to issue English translations and comprehensive guidance in English 
for all industry stakeholders.  
6.  We remind you that while Korea has said that companies can apply to the Ministry of 
Environment for confidential treatment of some information, US industry r eports that Korea is 
denying most CBI claims.  We have also received reports that the AREC/CCA joint registration is 
not working very well, and note your bilateral request for more information on CBI claims.  
7.  We are also concerned about MOE 's recent proposal  for amendments to the Chemical Control 
Act and Presidential decrees to introduce a mandatory tracking and reporting system for chemicals 
from import, to manufacturing and end -use. These would impose a heavy new burden, particularly 
on non -Korean firms, as  well impose inappropriate CBI disclosure requirements.  Per our TBT 
inquiry, we ask you to notify this proposal, as well as issue English -language guidance and 
translations.  G/TBT/W/542  
 
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  8.  We also note MOE 's release on 30 May of K -REACH draft implementation rules that, among 
other things, require companies by 30 June 2019 to ' pre-report'  the substances they manufacture 
or import, or face being banned from the market.  We ask you to notify this announcement, take 
industry comments into consideration, issue the guidance in English, and consider a longer 
implementation period.  
 
 
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