National officials meeting in The Hague have recommended cutting
down the costs of the draft EU chemicals law on businesses while
estimating the long-term benefits for society at “tens of billions”
of euros.

National officials meeting for a workshop in The Hague,
Netherlands, have put forward a series of recommendations and
conclusions based on an overview of the 36 impact studies published
on REACH to date. 

In their conclusions, officials agreed that the costs of REACH
to business – and on SMEs in particular – were too high and needed
to be curbed. To this end, they recommended that the bureaucracy
involved with the implementation of REACH be kept to a minimum.
They also urged for effective co-operation from companies on
implementation and information sharing once the law is passed in
order to avoid unnecessary duplication of tests and keep the
overall costs for industry to a minimum.

The national delegates also calculated the health benefits of
REACH for society at large. Those are estimated to be “at least
tens of billions” of euros with the number of cancer deaths reduced
by “several thousands”, especially among workers exposed to
hazardous substances.

The workshop issued observations and recommendations on four
main items which are summarised below:

Direct costs and benefits: 

• Costs for the EU-25 are approximately 4 billion euros.
• Main benefits for businesses include: better health for
  employees exposed to hazardous substances (between €18 and €54
  billion over 30 years); creation of a level playing field for
  European businesses; likely positive effect on innovation in the
  long run (increased R&D expenditure to develop safer
  alternatives). 
• REACH should be as user-friendly as possible with bureaucracy
  kept to a minimum and tools developed to facilitate businesses to
  comply with REACH.
• Registration costs should be reduced by enhancing co-operation
  between companies on data sharing and avoid duplications.
• Costs imposed on downstream users should be reduced by further
  exploring the concepts of ‘use’ and ‘exposure’ categories of
  businesses.
• Expensive animal testing can be replaced by alternative
  methods, thereby reducing costs.

Indirect costs and benefits: 

• Downstream users need “early stage clarity” about which
  products or ingredients can be supplied in order to keep indirect
  costs at lowest possible level.
• Companies who momentarily exceed marketing weight thresholds
  may be hampered in their expansion by heavier reporting
  requirements. Resulting (longer) marketing time needs should be
  minimised in order to avoid competitive disadvantages with the US
  or Asia.

Impact on society: 

• Benefits to society are “undisputed” but hard to quantify. They
  include reductions in diseases, improved worker safety and
  improvement of biodiversity. These are estimated to be “at
  least  tens of billions of euros” until 2020 (ranging from
  less than €10 and €200 billion depending on conservative or
  optimistic scenarios). 
• Costs to society are also difficult to estimate. They include
  loss of workplaces, less competitive businesses and price increases
  passed on to consumers. 

Competitiveness and innovation:

• While REACH should ensure a level playing between companies
  within the EU, European companies selling outside the EU may be at
  a disadvantage compared to international competitors.
• Certain sectors – SMEs in particular – are expected to be more
  affected than others.
• Short run innovation may be hampered by new legislation, but in
  the long run REACH may stimulate innovative new products and
  provide a first mover advantage for EU companies on the world
  stage.

The workshop also recognised that some substance groups such as
metals and minerals needed special attention (see EURACTIV,21 October 2004).