Market and product

The sharp differences in chemical regulations in the US and the EU is a cause for “concern” about the effect a potential free trade deal between the two jurisdictions could have in European chemicals, the manager for regulatory affairs at Dutch chemical major DSM said this week.

Truus Tiemersma added she did not expect chemicals to be included in the scope of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) altogether, on the back of those regulatory differences between the EU’s Reach and the US’ TSCA.

“I am a little bit concerned that at the end EU and US will end up with mutual recognition agreement. That means we accept compliance with TSCA for the imported goods – and compliance with Reach for EU-produced goods,” said Tiemersma.

“[Equally] The US accepts compliance for Reach for imported goods – and compliance with TSCA for US-production. They are very different systems and that’s not good for fair trade I would say. So here I am a little bit concerned.”

She went on to say that apart from the regulatory differences between the EU and the US, there are also notable disparities regarding workers’ safety or the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO), which are widely used in industrial sectors like pharmaceuticals and the food chain.

The debate about TTIP has become widely controversial in several EU countries. In late April, German consultancy Bertelsmann published a survey showing almost half of the German public opinion were concerned about negative consequences for consumer protection standards if the free trade deal came into force.

“Only 12% believe that the agreement could have a positive impact on consumer protection [and] 26% anticipate positive consequences for economic growth [but] 27% of those surveyed feel they will be negative,” said Bertelsmann.

DSM’s Tiemersma said she was not fully aware of the how the Dutch public opinion feels about TTIP but added it was seen as a positive the fact that the German chemical industry was fully behind current EU regulations.

“I am aware of Germany’s [feelings towards TTIP] and of course they have big chemical companies. The chemical industry said that mutual recognition is not possible, as the base principle of both regulatory systems are completely different. They are and will remain committed to Reach and the precautionary principle,” she concluded.