Chile leads the way on chemical safety in Latin America: Decree published

On February 9, 2021, Chile approved its rules for the classification, labeling, and notification of dangerous chemical substances and mixtures (Decree 57) in the official gazette. Decree 57 was promulgated in November 2019 and communicated to the WTO on 10 February 2021.

The new legislation targets manufacturers and importers of chemicals and dangerous substances that are not supervised by other regulations. 

Notifiers are requested to provide information on chemicals when dealing with 1 ton per year or above via the environmental authority portal. The notification is made on a biennial basis concerning the import or produced quantity every two year with the deadline on August 30th.

According to the law, applicants for substances for industrial use have three years to submit their first notification. As for substances for non-industrial use, it allows four years to notify. The recent deadlines are summarized below:

Decree 57 also further outlines the compulsory compliance of GHS in the country, a standard until then has been voluntary. The country has taken a step forward and decided to apply the standard to both industrial and consumer products. 

The GHS standards will phase-in following the periods:

In South America, Chile was the first country to join OECD and the first to implement and mandatory national inventory. It can be expected that other countries in the region will soon follow up and update their chemical agenda. 

Latest update: 2021-03-30