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EU chemical ruling raises €32bn stink

Samuel Loewenberg
Sunday 01 June 2003 00:00 BST
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The chemicals industry is joining the US government in a fight to water down a European directive that Brussels estimates could cost industry as much as €32bn (£23bn).

European Union regulators, concerned they do not have health and environmental data for most chemicals on the market, will require manufacturers to run extensive tests on mass-produced chemicals, most of which have been around for decades. Manufacturers must test the 30,000 most common chemicals on the market within 11 years, and there will be restrictions on the use of an estimated 1,500 particularly hazardous chemicals.

The EU estimates imple- menting the directive will cost the chemicals industry €6bn and the rest of industry up to €26bn. The Chemicals Industry Association (CIA) believes even these figures could be an underestimate and that the directive will undermine profits and could push some firms out of business.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrømde- scribed the directive as "a radical paradigm shift" in regulation. She is consulting with the industry with the aim of producing a draft directive by the autumn and bringing the regulations into force by 2007.

While the industry has broadly welcomed the regulation, it is concerned about the bureaucratic structure and the costs of implementation.

Alain Perroy, director-general of the European Chemical Industry Council, said the change could "impose a regulatory stranglehold", while the UK's CIA argues that Brussels will be treating all chemicals the same, rather than concentrating on the most hazardous. The CIA is also concerned that firms may be forced to disclose commercially sensitive information.

The US government has threatened a trade war over the proposal, calling it a "costly, burdensome and complex regulatory system, which could prove unworkable".

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