South Korea notified the draft amendment of the Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rule of the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances to the WTO.

On August 31, 2023, the South Korean Ministry of Environment (MoE) notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of the draft partial amendment of the Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rule of the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances. The amendment will affect new and existing chemical substances, polymers, nanomaterials, and substances subject to intensive control.

Both amendments are open for comments for 60 days from the notification date. The proposed date for adaptation and enforcement of the amendments is January 4, 2024. The partial amendment contains the following:

1. Enforcement Decree:

Name of Law: "Draft partial amendment of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances"

- Major Contents:

A. Delegation of Authority and Entrustment of Affairs etc (Articles 21, 22, and 31)

1) ORs are enabled for the tasks of reporting changes in substances subject to intensive control contained in the product and the newly amended duty

2) The tasks of reporting changes in substances subject to intensive control contained in the product and the newly amended duty could be done via the online system operated by the government.

3) Reporting changes of substances subject to intensive control contained in a product should be submitted to the heads of regional environmental offices

B. Criteria for Imposition of Administrative Fine (Attachment 6)

1) Depending on how many times a person has failed to report the changes of substances subject to intensive control contained in the product and the newly amended duty, a maximum of 10,000,000 KRW fine will be given.

2. Enforcement Rule:

Name of Law: "Draft partial amendment of the Enforcement Rule of the Act on Registration and Evaluation of Chemical Substances"

- Major Contents:

A. Simplification of provision of information on chemical substances (Article 36)

1) For any substances that have been registered without CSR, instead of registered numbers, whether registered could be written on MSDS for provision of information.

B. Criteria for reporting changes in substances subject to intensive control contained in the product (Article 43)

1) When the number of substances subject to intensive control contained in a product changes more than 50%, the substance needs to be reported for changes.

2) No need to report changes when the amount of change is less than 50%

C. Criteria for Fee (Attachment 11)

1) The reporting fee for the initial notification of SSICCP is set to be 20,000 KRW, reporting fee for the changes of the notification of SSICCP is set to be 15,000 KRW