The European Chemicals Administration (ECHA) aims to improve the implementation of the European Union's Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulation for the management of the import and export of hazardous chemicals and pesticides, and is proposing revisions to the legal text.

Helsinki, October 25, 2023- ECHA's third report on the implementation of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) regulation shows that although the number of export notifications has slightly decreased, the overall workload of implementing the regulation continues to increase due to the continuous increase in new notifications. The increase in chemicals subject to prior informed consent and substances that require explicit consent from non EU importing countries before export.

The report found that some new chemical substances added to the regulations, such as the first "substance in the substance" containing benzene and the new nicotine like substance that harms bees, have caused many notifications and posed challenges to new exports. There has also been an increase in requests from the public for trade data on hazardous substances collected under the prior informed consent regulations.

Based on these survey results, ECHA suggests that any future revisions to PIC regulations should:

1. Define which parts of the export notification are public;

2. Clarify which trade information should be disclosed in the EU annual report;

3. By modifying legal texts and implementing practices, the predictability and clarity of regulations can be improved.


Sharon McGuinness, Executive Director of ECHA, stated:

In recent years, the EU's interest in the export of hazardous chemicals has significantly increased, which has led to the amplification of PIC import and export notification data. The continuous evaluation of this regulation provides a good opportunity to improve the impact and transparency of PIC.

Our three-year report proposes specific methods to achieve this goal, such as clarifying legal texts and adapting to current practices. Our recommendations aim to implement regulations that control the trade of hazardous chemicals more transparently and effectively

background

The PIC regulation governs the import and export of certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides between the European Union and non EU countries. It mainly imposes obligations on companies that want to export these chemicals to non EU countries.


Within the EU, this regulation implements the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Procedure for International Trade.