European Commission Notifies Draft 9th Amendment to the Plastics Regulation to the WTO

The European Commission (EC) notified the draft 9th amendment to the Plastics Regulation, (EU) No 10/2011 to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on August 31, 2017. The 9th amendment was originally proposed as the 8th amendment but the EC changed the numbering of the amendments to the Plastics Regulation to reflect the numbers in the consolidated version of the Plastics Regulation. (A corrigendum to the Spanish version of the text (Regulation (EU) No. 865/2014 ) is included in the consolidated version.)

The 9th amendment would update the regulation’s positive list by adding four new substances and would make changes to the restrictions/uses for (butadiene, styrene, methyl methacrylate, and butyl acrylate) copolymer cross-linked with divinylbenzene or 1,3- butanediol dimethacrylate.

The WTO notification is available HERE and consists of a DRAFT Regulation and a DRAFT Annex to the Plastics Regulation.  The estimated timing for the publication of the draft 9th amendment to the Plastics Regulation is the end of 2017 or early 2018.

No significant amendments to the Plastics Regulation are expected in the near future (apart from updates to the positive list) due to the EC’s focus on other matters, such as the draft harmonized measure on printed food-contact materials.