Thread by @pmdfoster

🚨🇪🇺🇬🇧🚛🤦‍♂️🚨 UK chemical industry warns of £1bn cost to duplicate EU regime - this a worrying example of “all pain, no obvious gain” result that flows from pursuing a super-sovereigntist #brexit. Stay with me. 1/thread. ft.com/content/a1c4a5…

First the backstory - which is that chemicals are used in pretty much everything - from cosmetics to contact lenses to car paints - so don't think this is a niche issue. It's not. The chemicals industry plays into a bunch of others...which is why they are heavily regulated /2

So at the moment, in a big metaphorical cupboard in the European Chemicals Agency in Helsinki, the EU keeps a huge databank of all the chemicals authorised in the EU, and certified safe after a lot of testing (some of it on animals). The database is called REACH/3

This data was time-consuming to build up and cost $$$$ to build up, and when @theresa_may was negotiating #Brexit she was at least trying to get associate membership of ECHA to avoid unnecessary duplicate costs /4

chemicalwatch.com/64534/prime-mi…

@theresa_may It's not clear if she would have succeeded but that's moot because @BorisJohnson came along and instituted a "clean break" Brexit that rules out pretty much any encrumbrance/oversight etc with the EU. Sounds good on the stump, but what does that mean for REACH? And chemicals? /5

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson Well. It means we're going to create a UK REACH, according to the minister Rebecca Pow @pow_rebecca and while this "will take some adjustment, we believe that the benefits of having control of our own laws outweigh the costs." /6

committees.parliament.uk/publications/1…

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca So let's start with the "costs", before we get to the "benefits".

The thing to understand is that each UK company that uses or imports/distributes a chemical will need a UK reach registration for EACH chemical that needs to be registered in UK /7

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca The EU REACH registration will work for two years. Companies must notify UK REACH (run by Health and Safety Executive) win 180 days and then complete the registration in two years INCLUDING with all that test data held in that 'cupboard' in Helsinki. How hard can that be? /8

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca Well quite hard, since the as Dr Neville Prior, the boss of Cornelius Chemicals @CorneliusGroup tells me, the data is owned by third parties who will grant a 'letter of access' to it - that can cost £30,000 to £300,000! For each one. On top of basic £5k worth of fees./9

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca @CorneliusGroup So Ms Pow @pow_rebecca acknowledges both that data may be difficult to come by, and the "significant cost and burden" of complying with UK REACH...but she can't change the facts. We're building an entire duplicate regime for no apparently good reason./10

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca @CorneliusGroup So while Ms Pow talks about "benefits", that how Dr Dani Loughran the boss of @AstonChemicals sees it. She says it is "enormously wasteful and uncompetitive" to spend time, money and resources "to repeat all of these registrations for no additional benefit to anyone.” /11

@theresa_may @BorisJohnson @pow_rebecca @CorneliusGroup @AstonChemicals It also means as Peter Newport boss of Chemical Business Association tells me, that because UK is only 10-12% of total EU market, there will chemicals/products that are just not worth registering. That will hit downstream users /12

So can't this all be fixed by mutual agreement?

Well, @BorisJohnson is not seeking associate membership of REACH but is (see draft trade deal Annex 5E) seeking a "data-sharing agreement" with ECHA by the end of 2021...and when you look at the numbers above you can see why!/13

@BorisJohnson So will he get it? Mmm...maybe if there is a deal. The EU Chemicals industry association @Cefic + UK's Chemicals Industy Association @See_Chem_Bus BOTH back the idea...but then the food industry backs diagonal cumulation of Rules of Origin, and that aint happenin! /14

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus And you can see why the EU might not rush - as Peter Newport says - to help the UK "stuff it's pantry" full of the ECHA data goodies that have been built up over time. As Dani Loughran of @AstonChemicals says her EU competitors are "licking their lips" /15

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals And its not just SMEs that will feel the pain...as Geoff Mackey @geoffmackey1 @BASF corp affairs director says it will cost £60m-£70m to register about 1,200 all for “no added value to the company’s business " without "enhancing human safety or enviro protection in any way”/16

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals @geoffmackey1 @BASF And at the moment with less than 5 months to go, SMEs like @CorneliusGroup @AstonChemicals haven't even got their hands on the UK REACH IT software etc. It is being trialed in places, but for now they are just told it will look familiar. Eeeek. /17

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals @geoffmackey1 @BASF @CorneliusGroup This might not be the sexiest subject, but it is one that is deeply troubling industry and is a stark example of where UK is going to find it HARD to be a market of 55m people competing with market of 450m - suppliers in China/India will inevitably look to EU /18

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals @geoffmackey1 @BASF @CorneliusGroup This also points to one of the great unknowns about #brexit implementation...how issues like REACH duplication will create micro-fractures in supply chains...and what that will do to investment decisions and availability. I'm only a reporter, but I hear a LOT of gloom /19

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals @geoffmackey1 @BASF @CorneliusGroup Anyway. Don't shoot me for being the "gloomster"...I just asked about UK REACH and these were the answers I got. Maybe there is a 'data sharing deal'...but as one EU officials says, with a suck of their teeth, that would be "one hell of a freebie".../20

@BorisJohnson @Cefic @See_Chem_Bus @AstonChemicals @geoffmackey1 @BASF @CorneliusGroup In the end, as @pow_rebecca says, this is ultimately the logical consequence of the clean-break deal @BorisJohnson wants and has promised the public will revitalise a newly free, buccaneering Britain. It just doesn't sound like industry agrees with him. ENDS