New Delhi-based law firm Clarus Law Associates has been asked to prepare a note depicting commercial implications and impact of REACH regulations on the Indian chemical industry in terms of cost.

In a recent meeting on EU?s REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) regulations, the Department of Commerce asked the firm to translate legal provisions establishing WTO inconsistency of REACH regulations and the problems being faced by the Indian chemical industry into simple language and prepare a note depicting decomposition of commercial implications, impact of REACH regulations on the Indian industry in terms of cost of compliance.

Issues of excluding entire class of polymers from the REACH regulation and creating legal monopoly due to ?only representative? (OR) should also be clearly mentioned in the note, the department said.

The department said that the firm should submit a detailed and clearly defined proposal containing i) what study/studies is/are required to be done; ii) what kind of data is needed to justify our concerns on REACH regulation; iii) who will conduct the study; iv) who will provide the required data; and v) how much financial cost will be involved in each study/research programme, and in total.

CHEMEXCIL made a presentation on the current status of registration under REACH in 2010, data cost for 2010 registration and Indian chemical labs for generation of basic data of chemical for REACH.

The Department of Science and Technology informed that a team from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had inspected GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) Labs of India in November 2010.

The joint committee of OECD had already cleared the recognition of India?s GLP Lab. However, OECD Council is yet to approve Indian GLP Labs.

In order to expedite the process of recognition of India?s GLP Labs by OECD, it was decided that a letter will be send to the Ambassador of India in Paris.

The Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals will apprise the Department of Commerce immediately about the recognition of GLP Labs by OECD as and when it happens.