The inception of the ASEAN Regulatory Cooperation Project (ARCP) initiative in mid-2015 aims at addressing non-tariff barriers due to divergence of chemical management regulations by encouraging regulatory cooperation and convergence among the ASEAN Member States (AMS).
Based on the global principles for regulatory cooperation, the ARCP initiative is aligned to the directive of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) which promotes the use of good regulatory practices in helping to establish regulatory environments that encourages free and open trade and investment while protecting human health, safety, environment and security.
SCIC led the ARCP Organising Committee to drive greater engagements and capacity building involving all the regulators and industry representatives from all the 10 AMS. As a continued effort to keep the momentum of ASEAN network of regulators and industry associations through the ARCP, the workshop in 2019 was successfully held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 24 to 26 Sept.
Hosted by the Chemical Society of Vietnam (CSV), the workshop has achieved another step in the project milestone where discussions included the adaption of the ASEAN guidance document by AMS in their implementation process for the priority chemical management focuses on:
- Alignment of Globally Harmonised System (GHS) and
- Development of Chemical Inventory Database.
Capacity and capability building for the AMS is also a key approach to effective drive the ARCP objective. The training workshop for this year was focused on use of ASEAN prioritization tools in priority setting for risk assessment of chemicals. With the implementation of chemical inventory database by some AMS, the training has equipped them the skills and know-how knowledge to initiate actual implementation efforts and plan in their countries. This will help to bridge the competency gaps in the aspects of Chemicals Risk Assessment.
For more information about ARCP, please visit https://scic.sg/asean/.
