. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/204 
24 July 2008 
 (08-3587) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6. 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:   EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):         
2. Agency responsible:   European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and web-site 
addresses, if available) of  agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above:    
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [    ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [ X  ], 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):   Krypton; fructose; 
galactose; lactose; vitamin A; carbon; graphite ; certain vegetable and animal oils, fats and 
waxes; certain fatty acids (from C6 to C24) and their potassium, sodium, calcium and 
magnesium salts; glycerol; magnesia; certain types of glass and ceramic frits; compost; biogas; substances occurring in nature that ar e persistent, bio accumulative and toxic or very 
persistent and very bio accumulativ e or are of equivalent concern. 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:   Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Regulation (E C) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the 
Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Au thorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 
(REACH) as regards Annexes IV and V (11 pages, in English). 
6. Description of content:   The proposed Regulation will amend Annexes IV and V of 
Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006. These Annex es exempt a number of substances and 
substance categories from registration, downs tream user and evaluation obligations under 
REACH. The measure both extends existing exemptions to additional substances and 
substance categories and deletes or restricts existing exemptions from the mentioned obligations. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
The objectives of this draft Regulation are to re vise Annex IV on the basis of the criteria in 
Article 2(7)(a) of REACH - which provides that substances included in Annex IV are 
exempted from Titles II, V and VI of the sa me Regulation as sufficient information is 
known about these substances that they are c onsidered to cause minimum risk because of G/TBT/N/EEC/204 
Page 2  
 
  their intrinsic properties - and Annex V on the basis of the criteria in Article 2(7)(b) of 
REACH - which provides that substances cove red by Annex V are exempted from the same 
titles of the Regulation, as registration is deemed inappropriate or unnecessary for these 
substances and their exemption from these titl es does not prejudice the objectives of the 
Regulation. 
This was done on the basis of a thorough analys is of existing entries and proposals for new 
entries submitted by interested parties (including stakeholders from third countries). Existing entries which did not fulfil the above  criteria were removed and proposed entries 
which fulfilled the criteria were added. 
8. Relevant documents:   Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council on the Registration, Evaluation, Au thorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 
(REACH) (OJ L 396, 30.12.2006, p. 1. Re gulation as amended by Regulation (EC) 
No 1354/2007 (OJ L 304, 22.11.2007, p. 1).). See G/TBT/N/EEC/52. 
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    Mid/end September 2008 
October 2008 
10. Final date for comments:   40 days from date of notification.   
Given the limited scope of the amendment and th e fact that manufacturers and importers of 
substances that will be removed will need to pre-register their substances by 1 December 
2008 if they wish to benefit from the extended registration deadlines, this time period is 
reasonable. 
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [  X ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:   
European Commission 
EC-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2299 8043 E-mail:  ec-tbt@ec.europa.eu
 
The text is available on the EC-TBT Website: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
And at: 
http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2008/tbt/eec/08_2218_00_e.pdf