Since the 7th CD meeting in Peru in 2008 where the report of the CD Virtual Working Group on GHS (VWGGHS), “Developing Clarity and Consistency in the Implementation of the Globally Harmonised System for the Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS)” was endorsed, the participating APEC Economies provided GHS implementation reports detailing the progress of GHS implementation in their respective economies on an annual or biennial basis.
Over the past decade, these reports identified that foreshadowed trade benefits from GHS implementation were not yet fully realized due to divergent implementation of GHS across the regions. The divergences in GHS implementation include:
- Adoption of different revisions of GHS, given the UN GHS committee updates the Purple Book biannually.
- Adoption of different building blocks,
- Adoption of different concentration cut-offs for classification of mixtures for some building blocks, and
- Imposition of specific local requirements.
At the 21st CD meeting in Papua New Guinea in 2018, the CD agreed to a new reporting mechanism on GHS implementation, focused on identifying strategies to improve GHS convergence by Member Economies. The CD also supported trialing the new reporting form, the GHS Implementation Survey (the Survey), out of session, with a view to providing an annual executive summary to the Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT).
The Survey, in the form of a Google Forms was circulated before the SOM I 30th CD meeting, hosted by the United States of America. A PDF file of the survey was also circulated at the same time in case the responder cannot access to the Google Form and is provided in this report. The CD encouraged delegates to respond to the Questionnaire by March 3rd, 2023 to facilitate development of the annual report by the end of July.
This Report summarizes the CD delegates’ input into the Survey. Facilitating progress of 2022 report recommendations was also kept on track.
15 Respondent economies: Australia; Canada; Chile; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; The Philippines; Russia; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; and Viet Nam.
Download: 2023 APEC CD GHS Implementation Convergence report