CBA Blasts ‘Excessive’ REACH Fees

The Chemical Business Association (CBA) has hit out at the ‘excessive’ fees proposed by the European Chemicals Agency for the EU-wide chemicals regulations REACH.

The CBA supports the position taken by Cefic on behalf of Europe's chemical producers that to achieve ‘transparency, proportionality and workability, requires fundamental changes’ to the agency's proposed fee scales.

When the fees were proposed in October, Melvyn Whyte, chair of the CBA's REACH task force, termed them completely unacceptable as they were between 200% and 500% higher than those originally proposed by the European Commission.

Last week Whyte added: ‘The agency should go back to the drawing board and recognise its obligation to be fair, responsible and accountable to the chemical industry.’

Even though the powers invested in the ECA are those of a monopoly, argued Whyte, they: ‘should not extend to imposing unwarranted and unjustified charges on the industry which it seeks to regulate.’

The CBA believes the main impact of the REACH regulation will be felt by smaller firms, terming them ‘particularly vulnerable’ as they ‘do not have the resources to cope with over-bearing, over-complicated and over-expensive regulation’.

Web: http://www.chemical.org.uk