When implementing REACH in 2008 – 2010, EU manufacturers either registered their substances via their in-house expert departments, or outsourced these services from a EU-based consultancy company. In parallel, non-EU manufacturers exporting to Europe had to assign an Only Representative, a legal entity based in the EU.
Now it is time for all chemical manufactures of the world exporting to Turkey to implement the same practice by assigning a trustworthy local Only Representative, unless they own a Turkish legal branch able to coop locally with REACH-like administrative and technical legislation. Indeed, Turkish REACH (KKDIK) legislation is expected to be adopted very soon within the coming months, since the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation (MoEU) is currently busy to wrap up the final implementation details regarding the compliance of the substances, mixtures and articles put on the Turkish market by foreign manufacturers.
In comparison with other similar legislations around the world (i.e. Korea), Turkish REACH bears a characteristic of a regulatory approximation within the on-going accession negotiations process with the EU. This is the reason why KKDIK is nearly a copy-paste in Turkish language of the Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, only with some minor changes that are necessary for Turkish manufacturers to fully comply with this costly, time consuming and sophisticated piece of legislation. Therefore, non-Turkish manufacturers exporting to Turkey will find themselves within a familiar regulatory environment, but would also need to adapt to some national specifications to be closely followed through the MoEU declarations and publications… in Turkish language!
Nevertheless, the spirit of Article 8 of the EU REACH remains identical in the Turkish KKDIK version, and the draft “Guidance on Registration” of the MoEU shows similar obligations with regard to the Only Representative (OR) definition. This means also that similar lack of information and insufficient definition of the roles and duties of an OR in the EU regulation will likely be reflected in the KKDIK as well.
The shortcoming of the OR role and definition within REACH had motivated the leading ORs in the EU to gather in Brussels and to establish the Only Representative Organisation (ORO) in 2008. Since then ORO worked very hard to solve and implement the “OR Best Practices Guide” for the implementation issues faced by over 30 ORs. Within this experience background ORO members represent today more than 2,325 Non-EU manufacturers over the world, handling over 14,000 substances and covering directly or indirectly about 50,000 importers/Downstream Users in the EU/EEA. REACH Global Services S.A. (RGS) is a founding member of ORO since 2008. Based in Brussels, RGS had already pre-registered in 2008 substances of over 225 Turkish manufacturers, representing 75% of all Turkish chemicals exportations to the EU when EU REACH was launched. As of today, RGS had registered hundreds of substances for more than 200 manufacturers mainly from Turkey, but also from USA, India, Indonesia and Japan. Therefore, RGS is currently the most experienced REACH-related consultancy company being able to tackle with the Turkish KKDIK legislation through its Turkish branch company (RGS Turkey) based in Istanbul.
Through its experienced multilingual expert team of chemical engineers and environmentalists, RGS is able to offer a well-established professional IT-system, tracking substance volumes and establishing the link between volumes and downstream user (DU) information, achieving the information under strictly confidential systems, defining the responsibilities regarding SDSs, and representing the manufacturers not only at SIEF’s and consortia’s, but also vis-à-vis the public authorities during likely inspections. Besides these technical infrastructure and human resources proficiencies, an OR also needs good communication skills and a thorough professional integrity to accomplish such mission on behalf of its customers. Likewise the EU REACH process, it will also be a long term business relationship within KKDIK and therefore it is an important decision for a manufacturer located outside of Turkey to assign the right OR. Not every OR is able to contribute actively in the scientific communication or in dossier preparation.
It is evident that working with qualified Turkish speaking technical experts who are fluent in English, French and German, with very good communication and experienced consultancy skills is the key for KKDIK compliance when exporting chemicals to Turkey. Likewise in KEK (By Law on Inventory and Control of Chemicals-CICR) and SEA (Turkish CLP) regulations in Turkey, the online system does not resemble to ECHA REACH-IT by which an OR can open new accounts for each client of their own. The MoEU system does not support opening several accounts and the procedures for changing an Only Representative is not clear for the time being. MoEU has not announced any changes or construction to the online system either. This makes the decision even more critical for companies as OR change procedures remains as a grey area. RGS recommends manufacturers to take a judicious decision when assigning their Turkish OR.
Please contact RGS if you are not compliant with Turkish Chemicals Laws or need more details on our services and the status of your substances.
Dr.Yaprak Yüzak Küçükvar
RGS Turkey Branch Manager
