Taiwan OSHA attended the 2020 APEC Chemical Dialogue to report and exchange information of chemical management in Taiwan

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) joined the 24th APEC Chemical Dialogue (CD24) meetings in Putrajaya, Malaysia on February 4-6, 2020, and the 25th APEC Chemical Dialogue (CD25) virtual meeting on November 5-6,2020, as the representative of Chinese Taipei. The OSHA’s efforts were to demonstrate the contribution of GHS regional harmonization, trade facilitation, and international cooperation for issues of chemical management in Taiwan.

The CD was formed as a forum to contribute to the Committee of Trade and Investment’s (CTI) objects of support for the multilateral trading system, and regional economic integration, as well to the UN Sustainable Development Goals of trade facilitation and connectivity. In order to achieve these goals, the CD’s work have been focusing on consistent international implementation of the Globally Harmonized System for the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (“GHS”), and chemical regulatory cooperation and convergence.

Echoing the core workstream of the CD, the OSHA has been actively contributing its efforts by not only exchanging the most updated regulatory activities of Taiwan and the member economies, but also by developing and maintaining a clearinghouse website - the “GHS Reference Exchange and Tool, G.R.E.A.T.” - to collect and provide GHS information with the joint efforts from focal point(s) of member economies.

G.R.E.A.T. had more than 250,000 visits, and had furnished the GHS standardized labelling elements in 38 local languages, uploaded APEC member economies’ annual GHS Implementation and the Convergence Reports 2020 collected by Australia, updated the template version of GHS labelling elements provided by G.R.E.A.T. website to GHS Rev. 4 and Rev. 7 in consideration of member economies’ GHS implementation progress, and provided links to website of status and update of GHS implementation from economics. The visualized infographics drew the key components from the latest GHS implementation report, in which the differences of implementation status among the economies was addressed. The new features were agreed by the CD and would be officially published on the website to promote and emphasize the GHS convergence work. The efforts were thanked by the CD and many member economies.

As chemical industry grows immensely in Taiwan and globally, the APEC CD is important for finding solutions to challenges of regulatory best practice and health protection faced by the industry and the government. The OSHA will continue to actively engage and expand the global cooperation on the APEC platform to showcase our achievement of chemical management as well as to serve as a channel for information interaction.