Li Yongwu said three new trends, one is Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). According to the International Organization for Standardization, each chemical must correspond to one MSDS, and each MSDS includes at least 16 aspects of product and company identification, composition and composition information, injury identification, accident rescue, physical and chemical properties, etc. content. MSDS is equal to the product ID card in the chemical trade in international trade. Without MSDS, it is not qualified to do business with foreign countries. However, China's current understanding, mastery, and application of this situation are insufficient, and actual operations are not standardized. Failure to step up the establishment of an MSDS management system will result in great passiveness. The second is the Global System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS). The United Nations requires all countries to start categorizing and classifying chemicals exported in accordance with GHS requirements starting in 2008. As a member of the GHS, China has included this work as a national key scientific and technological project. According to customs statistics, China's annual import and export of chemicals reached more than 3,000 species, with an amount of more than US$40 billion. Every year due to improper classification and lack of corresponding marks and other reasons, causing a lot of economic losses. The third is the EU White Paper (REACH). This system, which was originally scheduled to be implemented in 2007, has included more than 30,000 chemicals on the EU market into the three management and monitoring systems of registration, evaluation and licensing. No monitoring system or chemical products that have not been tested will be allowed in the EU market sales. Once the EU White Paper is implemented, China will face at least 730 kinds of chemicals that are subject to registration, evaluation, licensing and restrictions, and the cost of exporting to the EU will increase by more than 5%.
Li Yongwu said that the above new trends give us the following inspiration: The increasing concern of the international community over the safety, health and environmental impact of chemicals on consumers has become a major trend. Only by earnestly studying and using the rules of the game in various international trades formulated under this general trend, and actively participating in the formulation of the rules of the game, can we gain the initiative in economic globalization.
Li Yongwu Reminds Domestic Enterprises: Paying High Attention to the Three Trends of International Chemical Trade
The three English word abbreviations MSDS, GHS, and REACH represent the general trend and game rules of the international community for chemical requirements. These three new trends should cause the domestic petrochemical companies to attach great importance to it, in order to be passive and active. This is when Li Yongwu, president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association, said in an interview with reporters at the International Chemical Show that just concluded on April 21.