Ricardo offers crucial help ahead of Brexit deadline for chemicals regulation

British companies who currently hold registrations under the EU REACH regulation, and have not yet transferred their registrations to an EU legal entity, need to act quickly to continue to trade with the EU, EEA or Northern Ireland – and Ricardo stands ready to help! 

The end of the Brexit transition period at 23:00 GMT on 31 December marks a key moment of change for those trading chemicals between the UK and the EU that are controlled under the Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulations. At that point, EU REACH will be brought into UK law and UK REACH will begin; UK REACH will be a replication of EU REACH but will apply only to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), while EU REACH will continue to apply to the EU, EEA and Northern Ireland. This means that – regardless of whether a free trade agreement is reached between the UK and EU ahead of the end of the transition period, there will be two different sets of REACH regulations that UK organizations wanting to trade across Europe will need to consider.

Crucially, for British organizations wishing to continue uninterrupted trade with the EU, EEA or Northern Ireland, it will be necessary to transfer their EU REACH registration to an EU-based legal entity before the end of the transition period. This can be the organization’s own EU entity such as a subsidiary, a manufacturer or importer of the chemical, or an ‘Only Representative’ (OR).

This is a critical step for organizations based in Great Britain as Ricardo is aware that many that trade within the EU have not yet transferred their EU REACH registrations to an EU-based legal entity. If they fail to act, their registrations will be null and void from the end of 2020, and their products will no longer be permitted legally to be marketed legally within the EU.

In order to assist British organizations with this urgent action, Ricardo’s National Chemical Emergency Centre (NCEC) – which operates OR services in the EU – is running a special offer up to 24 December, to waive its EU REACH legal entity transfer fees.

“The end of the Brexit transition period is a key milestone for those trading chemical products controlled under the EU REACH regulations,” explains Ricardo NCEC principal regulatory consultant Chris Hughes. “It would appear that many British-based organizations that will be impacted by this change have not yet acted to transfer their registrations, which could lead to significant interruption of trade or additional work and cost for them and their EU customers. As we are able to offer OR services for EU REACH and we recognize the urgency of the situation, we are making this time-limited offer to waive our transfer fees for those wishing to use our service to continue trading with the EU/EEA and Northern Ireland.”

For further details of this special offer and the other services available from Ricardo’s NCEC relating to EU REACH and UK REACH