Overview of GHS in Bosnia and Herzegovina; New Law on Chemicals in the Republic of Srpska

You are here

May 8, 2018Sava KostićBlog

Overview of GHS in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) is a country in the Western Balkans region of Southeastern Europe, internally divided into three federal entities: the Republic of Srpska (RS), the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH), and the District of Brčko, each of them having their own chemical regulations.

This means that Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign country does not enforce a unified chemical management system. To date, only the Republic of Srpska has issued a complete set of legal acts regarding chemical management according to GHS, and which is only enforceable on its territory.

The entity of the FBH does not implement GHS classification and labeling for chemical products. A draft Law on Chemicals for the FBH has been pending in the legislative procedure for the better part of the last two decades, yet has never become an enforceable legal act. In the meantime, the FBH has been using an old system of chemical management dating back from the times of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The District of Brčko is a city-like territory located between the other two entities. While it does have its own set of laws regarding some legislative matters (such as waste management, trade, transport, etc.), including chemical management for most of them, the District is de facto mimicking existing legislation from one of the other two entities. In this regard, the District does not have an established legal act following GHS, however it does allow GHS classification and labeling coming from the RS legal acts.

New Law on Chemicals in the Republic of Srpska

On 21 March 2018, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of the Republic of Srpska published the text of the newly enacted Law on Chemicals (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 21/2018). The new act replaces the existing Law on Chemicals from 2009, and it does not allow any further transition periods for chemicals which are to be placed on the market following the law's enactment date.

The new law updates the rules for GHS classification and labeling for chemical products in the Republic of Srpska, following EU regulations. In addition to GHS, the law specifies timelines for the enactment of new legal acts regarding chemical management, which are expected to be issued in the two years following the enforcement of the new law.

Impact on products already on the market
Chemicals and products which have already received prior authorization, or for which an authorization procedure was initiated according to the previous legislation, will encounter no change to the existing procedure.

GHS classification
The Republic of Srpska's Law on Chemicals sets general requirements for the compliance of chemical substances and mixtures on the market according to the GHS classification. The law clearly states that GHS compliance must follow the practices established in EU law. In other words, this law provides compliance requirements following those established by the EU REACH and EU CLP Regulations.

Furthermore, the RS law stipulates that the List of Classified Substances, such as the list from the Annex 6 of the EU CLP, will be published in harmonization with the above-mentioned EU legislation. Although the law insists on harmonization of the RS legislation with the EU CLP and EU REACH, it is important to keep in mind that there are two ways for national legislation to implement this harmonization; it may either:

  1. Transpose the existing EU act, which means transposing an existing (latest or not) version of the CLP Regulation; or
  2. The national authority may implement the EU act on the national level with some modifications.

These differences may be a product of the fact that the national legislation may capture a current version of the EU act, while the EU version may be modified any time after the RS national transposition is finished. Furthermore, RS as a part of BH, and not being a member state of the EU, is not bound to adopt any specific version of CLP in its entirety. This is however highly desirable because it facilitates international trade between the RS and the EU.

Nonetheless, the new RS regulation on classification is yet to be published. Thus, companies are advised to keep following the existing regulation on the classification, packaging and advertising of chemicals and certain articles (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 9/2016, as amended through 89/2016).

Labeling of chemicals
Although the new law gives provisions on the enactment of future (new and replacement) regulations regarding the labeling of chemicals, it is important to remember that those acts are yet to be published. In the absence of any specific criteria for labeling of chemicals according to the new law, companies must still follow the requirements outlined in the Regulation on the classification, packaging and advertising of chemicals and certain articles (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 9/2016, as amended through 89/2016.)

Safety data sheets
The new law reaffirms that all chemical products must be accompanied by a safety data sheet (SDS). However, since the new regulations on SDS are still forthcoming, the existing regulation on the content of safety data sheets (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 104/2013), applicable from 1 January 2014, is still to be used as a reference regulation.

On the other hand, the new Law on Chemicals emphasizes that companies may only use an alternative chemical name for substances or mixtures if that alternative name has previously been approved by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Again, although not a member state of the EU, the Republic of Srpska through BH is applying the existing EU rules in order to align its legislation as a measure for an easier trade exchange between the EU and RS.

Chemical declaration and reporting
All chemicals imported or produced in RS above certain limits must be reported to the central chemical registry. The existing Regulation on the Chemical Inventory (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 46/2014) provides that all chemicals produced or imported in quantities above 100 kg per annum must be registered in the chemical registry. All registrations must be submitted electronically at the latest by 1 March of each year.

Following the enactment of the new law, it is expected that the new regulation on chemical registration will come into force in the next two years. However, it is not expected that major changes will occur, since the RS is already following established EU norms. However it is still unclear if the lower limit of 100 kg per annum for the registration of chemicals will be maintained, or if the RS will instead align the lower limit with the EU norm which is set at 1 metric T per annum.

Revocation of existing regulations
The new act does not in fact change the established chemical management in RS. Rather, the new set of legal acts on chemical management is published in order to further align the local legislation with the new legislative developments on the EU level which have occurred since the publication of the last set of legal acts in RS.

This law explicitly revokes the Law on Chemicals (Official Gazette of Republic of Srpska No. 25/2009). However, other connected legal acts emerged from the now-revoked Law on Chemicals (2009), which will be enforced until the new equivalent legal act is published. The new Law on Chemicals gives explicit provisions on the timeline of the enactment of the by-laws, which are set to be implemented at latest by the end of the second year after the enforcement of the new law.

Transition period
All chemicals and substances put on the market prior to the enactment of the new law, and according to procedures enforced at that time, as well as all the procedures initiated prior the enactment of the new law, will maintain their status as it was. In other words, no change in status is expected for the chemicals and mixtures previously put on the market according to the old law.








Top