REACH
Also known as: Registration Evaluation Authorisation Restriction of Chemicals
REACH is the EU regulation that has chemical substances registered, evaluated, authorised and restricted before they are placed on the market. Without registration a substance above the threshold may not be imported, even if the customs declaration is correct.
What does REACH require of an importer, apart from the declaration?
REACH, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals, is regulation 1907/2006. A substance may be placed on the market in the Union if it has been registered with ECHA, with a dossier that covers the hazards and the uses. Above one tonne per year per legal person that duty sits with the manufacturer in the Union, or with the importer if the substance comes from outside. That is not a field in DMS. The import declaration is accepted, the duties are booked, the container drives away, and the importer can still be in breach because the substance is not registered. Enforcement sits with the inspectorate, in the Netherlands among others the ILT, not with Customs at the gate. The bill comes later, about placing on the market, not about a rate. Goods under a suspensive procedure, customs transit or warehouse, are not placed on the market. The registration duty does not play there. As soon as the same lot leaves the warehouse into free circulation, it does. That is the moment someone has to have checked the registration number, or the reason why there is none.
Who registers, the producer outside the EU or the importer here?
A producer outside the Union cannot register themselves. They appoint an Only Representative in the Union, who takes on the registration. The importers who buy from that producer then fall under that registration and are no longer independent registrants for that substance. Without an Only Representative every importer is themselves in play, per legal person, per substance, per tonnage band. You have to know that difference before the first consignment comes into free circulation. Anyone who assumes that 'the factory in Asia has it covered' and cannot point to an Only Representative is themselves the importer-registrant, or they may not import the substance. A letter on the supplier's stationery is not a registration with ECHA. The registration number has ECHA's format, not an internal article number. It belongs in the master data of the substance, next to CAS and EC number, and in section 1 or 15 of the safety data sheet. If it is missing, the question is whether the substance sits under the threshold, is exempted, or is going onto the market illegally.
What is the difference between registration, authorisation and restriction?
Registration is the basic duty: dossier with ECHA, above the threshold. Authorisation is the extra layer for substances on the authorisation list (Annex XIV): without a grant you may not use them, even if they are registered. Restriction (Annex XVII) forbids or limits certain substances, mixtures or articles for certain uses, Union-wide. For the declarant the restriction is the part that comes closest to TARIC. A substance that may not be imported, or only with a permit, often carries a measure at the goods code. DMS refuses the declaration if the document is missing. Authorisation and registration sit deeper in the chain: they are about the use after import, and Customs does not test them by itself. SVHCs, substances of very high concern, sit on the candidate list. In articles above a threshold concentration an information duty to the customer follows from that, and a notification in the SCIP database. That is not a customs document, but it is a document a controller lays next to the SDS.
How do you see REACH back in the safety data sheet?
Section 1 identifies the substance or the mixture, with CAS, EC number and where applicable the REACH registration number. Section 3 gives the composition. Section 15 names the specific legislation: authorisation, restriction, national rules. Section 16 the other information. An SDS without a registration number on a substance that belongs above the tonnage to be registered is a signal, not a detail. The sheet has to be in the language of the Member State of the user, and it has to carry the current classification under CLP. An English sheet from 2019 on a consignment that arrives in Rotterdam in 2026 is not the prescribed document for the Dutch user, and it can carry a classification that has since changed. Lay the SDS next to the declaration before the consignment goes into free circulation. Not because DMS asks for it, but because the question 'is this substance registered, authorised, restricted?' starts in the sheet, and because a later control moment asks for the sheet first.
What happens if you import an unregistered substance?
Customs often lets the consignment through, because the check does not sit in the declaration. The infringement is the placing on the market. The inspectorate can take the substance off the market, impose a penalty payment and in serious cases go down the criminal route. A 'we did not know' falls away if you are the importer: the duty sits with you, or with the Only Representative you should have known. Rolling back is limited. A substance that has already been supplied onwards is on the market. A substance that still sits in warehouse is not, and there you can hold the exit until the registration is in place. That is one of the reasons to keep chemicals under suspension until the article card is complete, including REACH status. For a forwarder the question is how far their duty of care reaches. They are not the importer-registrant if they only declare. They are the party who brings a consignment into free circulation for a client who may not have the substance. That tension belongs in the intake and in the willingness to stop a consignment if the registration number is missing.
How do you keep REACH in the master data of a chemical article?
Next to the goods code, the origin and the weight belong CAS number, EC number, REACH registration number or the reason for exemption, whether there is an Only Representative, whether the substance sits on the authorisation or restriction list, and whether SCIP plays. Each of those fields has its own way of breaking later. A missing goods code makes DMS refuse. A missing registration number does not make DMS refuse, and is more expensive. Choose one source per substance, not per consignment. The SDS of this supplier, this version, this language. A second supplier of 'the same' substance is a second registration, a second sheet and sometimes a second classification. Merging into one article card because the trade name is the same is how a restricted substance becomes invisible. Recheck on a new SDS. Section 14 can carry a new UN number, section 15 a new restriction, section 1 another registration number after an update of the dossier at ECHA. An article card that has not been touched for two years is, in chemicals, a risk, not rest.