The main goal of this regulation is to pursue sustainable development. This is a legal proposal concerning the safety of chemical production, trade and use. Its primary goal is to protect human health and environmental safety, maintain and improve the competitiveness of EU chemical industry, and pursue social sustainable development. In order to achieve this goal, the European Commission will establish a unified chemical monitoring and management system and complete the management of all related chemicals by 20 12 years ago. This system includes about 30,000 kinds of chemical products and their downstream products in the EU market, such as textiles, light industry and medicine, into three management monitoring systems: registration, evaluation and licensing.
According to the timetable drawn up by the European Union, the registration of chemicals with output exceeding 65,438+0,000 tons should be completed within three years; Chemical substances with an output of 100 to 1000 tons shall be registered within 6 years; Chemical substances with an output of 1 to100t are registered within 1 1 year, and products that fail to be included in the management system on schedule shall not be sold in the EU market.
At the same time, the regulation also stipulates strict testing standards and high testing costs, which are borne by enterprises. According to the estimation of the European Union, the basic testing cost of each chemical substance is about 85,000 euros, and the testing cost of each new substance is about 570,000 euros.
The implementation of this regulation will have a great impact on petrochemical, light industry, textile and other related industries in China and even the world. It is estimated that more than 5 million kinds of goods currently sold in the EU market will be affected. This situation has attracted great attention of our government and petrochemical industry.
The implementation of REACH regulations has certain positive significance for the development of China's petroleum and chemical industries. In order to protect human health and environmental safety, REACH laws and regulations have made strict provisions on the research and development, production, sales, use and waste treatment of chemicals, and put forward higher requirements, forcing chemical production enterprises to speed up the adjustment of industrial structure and product structure, adopt international standards, improve product quality and grade, improve production technology, reduce environmental pollution, and speed up the process of connecting with international advanced levels.
The implementation of regulations will have a negative impact on China, and the implementation of REACH regulations will also have a certain negative impact on the chemical industry and related industries in China. Because there is still a big gap between China and the developed countries in Europe and America in the research, production and use of chemicals and the trade volume of chemicals.
The EU has always been an important trading partner of China. In 2004, the total chemical trade between EU and China was 2,765,438+900,000 tons, with a total amount of 2.99 billion US dollars. Among them, the export chemicals involved 904 tax codes, 2 15 products, and the export volume exceeded 100 tons, and 47 4 products, and the export volume exceeded 100 tons; The EU's export of chemicals to China involves the tariff number of 1066. Therefore, after the implementation of REACH regulations, some chemicals exported to the EU or with export potential and downstream products using these chemicals may be eliminated by the EU market, and some chemical enterprises may change production or even go bankrupt due to rising costs. According to China's estimation, once the new EU chemical policy is implemented, 200,000 China enterprises may lose their jobs.
Preliminary analysis shows that the impact of the implementation of REACH regulations on China's petrochemical industry and related industries is mainly manifested in the following six aspects:
First of all, it creates obstacles for the export of chemical products in China.
EU is one of the main export markets of China's chemical products. The implementation of REACH will have a comprehensive impact on China's chemical export trade. According to customs statistics, in 2004, China exported17.28 million tons of petrochemical products to the EU, with an export value of1400 million US dollars.
From the structure of petrochemical products exported from China to the EU, it can be seen that most of them are bulk, low-value and seriously polluted raw materials in the production process, and they are also indispensable plastics, rubber, organic or inorganic chemical raw materials and various intermediates in the EU. The information and data related to these products are either lacking or incomplete, or do not meet the technical standards of the European Union.
According to the requirements of REACH regulations, China's export of these chemicals and thousands of downstream chemical products to the EU will face the problems of registration, evaluation and licensing, and must be registered through manufacturers or importers in the EU. It is estimated that the increased cost will generally increase the export cost of China's petrochemical products to the EU by more than 5%, thus hindering the export of China's chemical products to the EU and even withdrawing from the EU market. According to the forecast of China Pesticide Industry Association, China's pesticide products will be partially withdrawn from the EU market, and its export volume will be reduced by more than 70 million US dollars every year. With the EU's eastward expansion, China will lose more than 80 million dollars. For chemical products and downstream processing enterprises with export potential, such as textile, light industry, household appliances and other industries, it will cause greater trade obstacles. Therefore, the implementation of REACH regulations will definitely hinder the export of petrochemical products from China to Europe in the near future and affect the export of downstream products from China to Europe.
Second, it seriously affects the development of downstream related industries.
The EU is also an important source of petrochemical products in China, especially some high-tech products with high added value, which cannot be separated from the EU market for a while.
After the implementation of REACH regulations, chemical producers or exporters in the EU will definitely include their high registration and evaluation fees in the product and export costs, thus increasing the export price, which will undoubtedly increase the cost for chemical importers in China. As the chemicals imported by China from the EU are mainly high-grade and high-value-added organic and inorganic chemical raw materials and intermediates, plastics and their products, China's chemical trade deficit may be even greater. According to industry estimates, the average price of chemicals imported from the European Union will generally increase by more than 6%, which will not only affect the development of China's chemical industry, but also lead to the increase in the cost and decrease in the benefits of related downstream products in China, which will seriously affect the development of China's textile, medicine, light industry, electronics, automobiles and other related industries.
Third, it will lead to a major change in the international trade market of chemicals.
The chemical trade between China and Europe is highly complementary. EU is the main market for China's chemical exports and the main source of China's chemical imports. From the analysis of chemical trade structure with EU, China mainly imports fine and deep-processed chemicals (such as dyes, synthetic rubber, synthetic fibers, etc.). ) from the European Union, and most of them are irreplaceable products, with high dependence, while China mainly exports chemical raw materials and intermediates, with low added value.
After the implementation of REACH regulations, the higher registration evaluation requirements and registration evaluation fees in the EU will break the existing trade pattern, forcing China enterprises to re-explore markets outside the EU and establish new trade channels. The development of new markets will take some time and investment, and the market transfer will seriously affect the development of China's chemical industry. At the same time, EU chemical enterprises will lose many opportunities to obtain cheap chemical raw materials from China.
In the process of forming the new system, a new price and trade system will be established based on the capital and technology-intensive products of developed countries. In this regard, developing countries that produce resources and labor-intensive products will pay the price.
The fourth is to weaken the competitiveness of China's export products.
At present, most of China's chemical products exported to the EU are bulk, low-value and raw materials, and the production process is seriously polluted, mainly in inorganic salts, coatings, dyes, rubber products, organic intermediates and other fields, which has the advantages of resource-intensive and labor-intensive. From June 65438 to June 2004, China exported more than 900 chemicals to the European Union, of which more than 270 exported more than 1000 tons. Most of the exports to the EU are small and medium-sized chemical enterprises. With the increase of product registration cost, the decrease of development cost and the extension of EU evaluation and approval time, it is estimated that half of the products will gradually lose their advantages, which will greatly weaken the competitiveness of these enterprises in international trade, and will lead to the closure of thousands of enterprises in China due to export obstruction, and more than 200,000 workers will face unemployment. After the EU's eastward expansion, China's chemical export trade to the EU will be further restricted. At the same time, it also reduces the opportunities for domestic enterprises to develop in the EU, and hinders the transfer of domestic advantageous industries to EU countries and the investment and development of enterprises in the EU.
Fifth, products that affect human health and pollute the environment may be transferred to China.
The implementation of the new EU law will generally increase the production cost of products. Those products with high cost and low profit, which pollute the environment and endanger people's health, will be transferred from the EU to the third world, and will probably be transferred to China for production.
Sixth, it affects the four major companies to explore the European market.
China Petroleum and Natural Gas Co., Ltd., China Petrochemical Co., Ltd., China Sinochem Corporation and China National Chemical Corporation are large enterprise groups integrating the upstream and downstream of China petrochemical industry, scientific research, production and trade, with the goal of global development and transnational operation. The implementation of REACH regulations will set obstacles for the four major companies to enter the European market and have a certain impact on their transnational business strategies.