REACH: the chemicals rules that customs helps enforce

Chemicals are used across almost every industry. Supply chains are long, and the same substance can cross the border between the EU and the UK several times. Many businesses handle chemicals without thinking of themselves as chemical companies. If you import, make, sell or use them, you may have duties under EU REACH, UK REACH, or both.

What REACH stands for

REACH is the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It is set out in Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006, adopted on 18 December 2006 and in force since 1 June 2007. It is the main EU law on chemicals. It applies across the European Economic Area (EEA), which adds Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein to the EU. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) runs the system and holds the databases.

The four parts of the name are four processes:

• Registration - companies must register substances they make in, or import into, the EEA at one tonne or more per year per company (Article 6). The rule is 'no data, no market': without registration, the substance may not be placed on the market (Article 5).
• Evaluation - ECHA and the member states check the registrations and can ask for more information.
• Authorisation - substances of very high concern ('SVHCs') are placed on a candidate list and can be moved to Annex XIV, after which they may be used only with a specific authorisation (Articles 57 and 59).
• Restriction - if a risk cannot be managed, a substance can be limited or banned. Restrictions are listed in Annex XVII and apply to the substance on its own, in a mixture, or in an article (Article 67).

Who carries the duty

REACH puts the burden of proof on business. Under the regulation you may be:

• a manufacturer - if you make chemicals, even for export;
• an importer - defined as any person established in the EU who is responsible for the import, meaning the physical introduction of goods into the customs territory (Article 3(10) and (11));a downstream user - almost any company that uses chemicals in its activity.

A company established outside the EU is not bound by EU REACH, even when it sells into the EU. The duty falls on the EU importer. To carry the paperwork instead, a non-EU manufacturer can appoint an 'only representative' - a person established in the EU who takes on the importer obligations (Article 8).

The customs link

REACH does not apply to substances under customs supervision, but only in the situations the regulation lists: temporary storage, a free zone or free warehouse with a view to re-export, or transit (Article 2(1)(b)). The customs warehouse procedure is not on that list. Goods placed in a customs warehouse are therefore inside REACH.

Two more customs-facing duties are easy to miss:

• a safety data sheet must travel with a hazardous substance or mixture (Article 31);
• for an article that contains an SVHC from the candidate list above 0.1 % by weight, information must be passed down the supply chain, and in some cases notified to ECHA (Articles 33 and 7).

A recent ruling: who is the 'importer'?

In Case C-654/22 (FPS for Health v Triferto Belgium NV), judgment of 11 April 2024, the Court of Justice held that where more than one person could be the importer, only one of them needs to register a given import, provided that registration is complete. It also confirmed that goods placed in a customs warehouse are inside REACH, because that procedure is not one of the cases excluded by Article 2(1)(b). Learn more: 'Importing chemicals: CJEU rules who bears the burden of administrative work', CCRM Issue 27 (2024).

EU REACH and UK REACH

EU REACH stopped applying in Great Britain on 1 January 2021. A separate UK REACH now covers substances made in or imported into Great Britain, with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) taking the role ECHA plays in the EU. Northern Ireland stays under EU REACH, under the Northern Ireland Protocol as adjusted by the Windsor Framework. The two systems share the same aims and the same one-tonne threshold, but they are separate registers. A company trading both ways may have to register the same substance twice - once with ECHA, once with HSE. A role can also change at the border: a business that was a downstream user under EU REACH can become an importer under UK REACH. Learn more: 'REACH chemical regulations in the EU and the UK - international conflict?', CCRM Issue 23 (2023).

The status of the reform (as at April 2026)

The European Commission had been looking at revising REACH under the European Green Deal. In an address to the European Parliament's ENVI committee on 27 April 2026, Environment Commissioner Roswall said the Commission had come "to not open REACH at this point", to give business certainty and predictability. Instead it is pursuing simplification and modernisation - including through comitology - and stronger enforcement against non-compliant products and substances from outside the EU, both at the border and through market surveillance. A separate restriction on PFAS (the 'forever chemicals') is expected once ECHA's two scientific committees have given their opinions.

Use case

Question to Smart Taric AI: "I plan to import vinyl chloride (2903 21) from China to France. What should I know?". 

Vinyl chloride (chloroethylene), commodity code 2903 21, is the building block of PVC and a known carcinogen. Smart Taric AI shows that the third-country duty is 5.5 % (erga omnes, under Regulation 1789/03, in force since 1 January 2004) and that French VAT applies at 20 %. But the point for a chemicals importer is the non-tariff line: import control under REACH applies at import, on an erga omnes basis, under Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (measure in force since 10 February 2023). Regardless of the country of origin, one of two declarations must be presented at import: document Y-106, confirming that the goods comply with the relevant restriction in Annex XVII to the regulation, or document Y-110, declaring that they are exempt.

So the duty is only part of the picture. Before the goods can be released, the importer has to show the REACH restriction is met. Smart Taric AI surfaces that requirement next to the duty, so it is not missed at the border. Try Smart Taric AI.