Legal Requirements of Korean Biocide Regulation (K-BPR) and Korean REACH (K-REACH)

Abstract

Although the market is currently weakening somewhat, the South Korean chemical market has experienced strong growth in recent decades. The market volume in 2012 was approximately 125 billion euros, which catapulted South Korea to 6th place in the ranking of the leading chemical nations. In 2017, Korea accounted for 2.9% of world chemical sales.1 According to Statistics Korea, there were2 about 4,800 companies (with ten ormore employees) in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in SouthKorea in 2016. They employed a total of around 171,000 people and produced products worthUS$130 billion. Almost 90% of the companies are small to mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) with less than 50 employees. The Korean chemical industry is thus characterised by small and medium-sized enterprises with little experience in the field of safe chemicalmanagement. Since the July 2011 free trade agreement between South Korea and the EU many chemicals can now be traded duty-reduced or duty-free, which has boosted trade in chemical products. The strong growth is mainly due to the progressive development of Korean competencies in new fields of technology, which often require the use of special high-tech materials. Consequently, Korea is not only amajorproducer but alsohas ahighdemand for chemical products, which is met by imports, mainly from Japan, China, the USA and Germany. In 2013, for example, Korea imported chemical products worth approximately US $ 47 billion.3