APEC Chemical Dialogue First Senior Officials’ Meeting III (SOM3)

Cebu City, August 25-27, 2015

Government and industry representatives from twenty one countries participated in the Chemical Dialogue (CD) held at Radisson Blu, Cebu City on August 25- 27, 2015. The three day event started with the CD Regulator’s Forum on August 25 followed by the Seminar on Application of Good Regulatory Practices in Chemical Regulations and CD Industry Pre- Meeting on August 26 and ended with the 15^th Chemical Dialogue on August 27.

Mr. Joey Marcalain, SPIK President, acted as Co-Chairman during the Industry Meeting with Dr. Fumiaki Shono, Executive Director of the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA).

Some of the highlights of the 15^th Chemical Dialogue were discussions on current issues, challenges and best practice sharing in the implementation of chemical regulations such as Globally Harmonized System on the Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), the G.R.E.A.T. Project of Chinese Taipei, Virtual Working Group (VWG) on GHS, marine debris as represented by the Philippine Plastics Industry Association (PPIA) and regional capacity building project of Japan.

The JCIA provided an update on their ongoing projects on chemical management such as the JAMP, chemSHERPA, SCRUM and BIG Dr. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) gave an overview on the ICCM4 – SAICM contribution of the APEC CD while the OECD representative discussed the EU emerging regulations on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), nanomaterials and clearing house activities on exposure assessment for mixtures. Australia announced the ongoing reforms in their NICNAS project.

Regulatory cooperation is still the top priority of each economy as evidently discussed during the updates of each economy in the chemical dialogue.