REACH After Brexit

Posted on September 23, 2016

Although the REACH Regulations may be complex and burdensome to some, it will continue to apply during the two years it is expected to take to negotiate the terms of the UK’s EU exit.
Future participation in REACH will depend on the outcome of the negotiations. Currently, the options for the UK after leaving the EU include:

• joining the European Economic Area (EEA), with countries such as Iceland and Norway, which would allow the UK to be part of the EU’s single market, or
• being outside of the single market, probably with a free trade agreement such as Switzerland.
• If the UK took the option of being outside the single market, REACH would no longer apply. Not only would the UK have no input into EU chemical policy, but there would be changes in the process of registering substances which could seriously disrupt chemicals trade as UK chemicals would be imports from a non-EU country and registrations currently carried out in the UK and would have to be replaced by registration by importers or only representatives inside the EEA.