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INTERVIEW
WE WANT TO USE INDIA AS A REGULATORY HUB FOR LATIN AMERICA, EUROPE, AND PARTS OF ASIA We expect to face new Indian regulations in 2022 and we need to prepare ourselves for the industry and sensitize them on how they need to prepare to continue to do the business in a smooth way
SHISHER KUMRA
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR GLOBAL PRODUCT COMPLIANCE (GPC)
How do you see the regulatory compliance scenario in the chemical sector? The story started in 2008 when European regulation called REACH was launched by the European Union (EU) and as a result there have been efforts by other countries who have also joined this regulatory regime on chemicals. These regulations are primarily based on environmental and human health protection scope. The EU enacted REACH regulation wherein all chemicals placed in the European market need to be registered. After 2018, all manufacturers registered their chemicals which they wanted to place in the European market as there were penalties for non-compliance. The compliance started in Europe and was immediately followed by China, Korea, and several other countries. Now at least 8-10 countries have very extensive new types of chemical regulatory compliance requirements which is influencing many other countries for implementation. Many countries including India are also looking at regulatory compliance for the chemical sector. Current trends in regulatory compliance and how is GPC planning to minimize it? Compliance is a sort of an issue and chemical manufacturers are concerned about
it since it results in cost. Somehow this is a new reality and they have to face and prepare accordingly otherwise exports could get affected drastically. The chemical regulation has three main phases. First, inventory phase where one needs to know which chemicals can be placed in a particular country and one needs to have some estimation. Second, classification and labelling criteria has to be harmonized with the global system called UN Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (UNGHS). These two things have to be in place in order to go to the setting up of a regulatory environment wherein companies need to register their chemicals so that the government can adequately control them. Considering these, a lot of countries have entered into the inventory phase. For e.g. Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, and a lot of Latin American countries. What has happened is that most of the large chemical economies have joined the global harmonized system of classification and in terms of regulations, many of them similar to REACH are being implemented across Europe, United Kingdom, Turkey, South Korea, China, and some countries of Latin America. Taiwan and Japan have their own set up in terms of requirements. There is a global development happening in the area
