. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/TBT/N/TPKM/130 
21 December 2012  
 (12-7043) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member:  THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF TAIWAN, PENGHU 
KINMEN AND MATSU  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:   
Environmental Protection Administration,  No.83, Zhonghua Rd. Sec. 1, Zhongzheng District 
Taipei City 10042, Taiwan Telephone:   (886 2) 2311-7722 Fax:  (886 2) 2381-0562 E-mail:   sllien@epa.gov.tw  
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :    
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Existing chemical 
substances that are listed on the existing chemical inventory by the Environmental Protection Administration and new chemical substances which are not listed on the existing chemical 
inventory. 
5. Title, number of pages and langu age(s) of the notified document:  Draft amendment of the 
Toxic Chemical Substances Control Act (TCSCA ) (15 pages in Chinese, English translation 
available).     G/TBT/N/TPKM/130 
Page 2  
 
   
6. Description of content:  Under the current Toxic Chemicals Substances Control Act 
(TCSCA), chemicals are managed by relevant competent authorities according to their uses and applications. However, the competent aut hority has yet to establish any regulatory 
scheme to include chemical substance registrati on for further toxic screening and control. The 
development of existing chemical inventory is e ssential as a basis to toxic chemical substance 
screening and new chemical substances management. Under the current toxic substance 
screening process, the EPA is fully responsible fo r collecting a list of chemical substances that 
are identified as harmful to human health or the environment by competent authorities around 
the world as an initial pool of collection list for further evaluation. However, the toxic screening process is considered costly, and the efficiency requires great improvement to ensure the protection of human health and the environment. Furthermor e, directly adopting 
toxic substances from other countries for to xic screening process might cause waste in 
administrative resources due to the lack of prioritization upfront. In this amendment, the 
competent authority plans to adopt the core pr inciples of registrati on scheme implemented 
internationally to require industries to su bmit information of ma nufactured or imported 
chemicals to reflect the chemicals in use on the market and for further toxic chemical 
management evaluation.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
To strengthen management of toxic chemic als and to enhance the protection of the 
environment and human health.  
8. Relevant documents : N/A   
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    31 March 2013 
31 March 2014 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification  
11. Text available from:  National enquiry point [X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:    
WTO/TBT Enquiry Point  
The Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection  Ministry of Economic Affairs 4 Chinan Road, Section 1, Taipei, 100, Taiwan Telephone:  (886-2) 2343-1801 
Fax:   (886-2) 3343-1804 
E-mail:  tbtenq@bsmi.gov.tw  
http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2012/tbt/CHT/12_4800_00_e.pdf  
http://members.wto.org/crna ttachments/2012/tbt/CHT/12_4800_00_x.pdf