South Korea has Amended the K-REACH Regulation

Korea MoE released the amended K-REACH regulation on 13 Apr. 2021, which will officially take effect on 14 Oct. 2021.

The K-REACH regulation has been amended for 9 times since its implementation in 2015. With the improvements of the regulation, the supervision on chemicals in Korea has become stricter.

The K-REACH regulation has been amended in the following parts this time:

• Raw materials for organic agricultural and fishery products under the Act on Promotion of Environment-friendly Agriculture and Fisheries, and Management of and Support for Organic Foods are not subject to the management of K-REACH regulation after the new amendments takes effect;
• Under the current K-REACH, enterprises that fail to fulfill the obligations of notification, registration, exemption application, etc., the Ministry of Environment is only able to issue measures, punitive orders, etc. to companies that manufacture or import the substance; However, under the K-REACH amendments this time, downstream users that use or sell chemicals that fail to fulfill the obligations of notification, registration, exemption application, etc. will also face punishments;
• To confirm the import and export information of related substances, MoE may need related data provided by the Customs or other competent authorities. The current K-REACH regulation does not provide any legal basis that competent authorities other than MoE shall provide any information for confirmation. There is some limitation on the supervision of notification and registration by MoE. However, under the new K-REACH amendments, related clause is added (If needed, administrative institutions of all levels shall provide import and export data of related substances).