On 17 Apr 2018, The Toxic and Chemical Substance Bureau under Taiwan Environmental Agency released their annual monitoring report of environmental agents. In 2017, 40,720 advertisements, labels and products were inspected and the qualification rate was 99%. One notable violation prompted Taiwan’s EPA to issue a public warning against mosquito repellents imported from Japan.

On the last days of February ICAMA released its latest pesticide risk assessment model COPrisk. Six models have been released to date, including the Repellents Risk Assessment Model, Repellents, Aerosols, CML model, TOP-Rice, China-PEARL. The models mentioned above, along with COPrisk offer guidance and assistance to companies preparing their risk assessment report for the purpose of complying with China pesticide registration data requirements.

On 20 March 2018, South Korea officially enacted its biocide regulation, “Law 15511-Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides”. This regulation comprises 60 articles organized into 7 chapters plus 5 articles in the Annex.  The new regulation establishes a fundamental framework of safety verification on household chemical products and pre-approval of biocidal substances and products. Depending on the notification and application plan of existing biocidal substances, K-BPR will offer different grace periods for biocidal substances and products. Some deadlines will be due as early as 2020 while others have been extended until 2032. All deadlines and corresponding eligibility criteria/clauses are summarized below.

On 9 Apr 2018, the Korean Ministry of Environment (MOE) opened a10-day investigation on biocidal substances used in biocidal products. Korean manufacturers and importers of biocidal products at and above medium-size are requested to fill and submit a questionnaire by 18 April. This move is will serve as a foundation for implementation of the pre-approval system introduced by “Law 15511-Act on the safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides” which begins on the 1st of Jan 2019.

On 30 Mar 2018, Korea officially enacted the “Law 15511-Act on the Safety Management of Household Chemical Products and Biocides (K-BPR)”, which will take effect on 1st Jan 2019. The regulation majorly governs the labeling, approval, authorization and post-management of household chemical products, biocidal products and biocide-treated articles.

By the end of 2017, 37888 pesticides registered by 2213 companies were within their validity, of which 3913 pesticides of 1216 companies were newly approved in the past several years. China promulgated a new pesticide regulation and revoked temporary registration. Applications which were being processed at the time of promulgation of the new regulation are still being reviewed and approved based on requirements of the previous regulation: 3365 were full registration for field use, 385 were temporary registration for field use, 153 were full registration for hygienic pesticide and 10 were temporary registration for hygienic pesticide.

On 28 Nov 2017, China MoA’s Website released Order 8 of 2017 regarding the amendment and annulment of several ministerial regulations and other regulatory documents, of which 2 are amendments to fertilizer registration. The most notable changes are that temporary registrations are removed from the registration scheme and also there is a broadened acceptance scope of efficacy trail report.

On 10 Jan 2018, China MoA’s website released announcement 2622 to promulgate 87 agricultural standards which became effective on 1st of Jan 2018. Among them, 21 standards are for the regulatory studies required during registration of pesticides and fertilizers.

On 23 Jan 2018, China MoA’s website released 6 guidance documents to clarify the administrative formalities of pesticide and fertilizer registration. The documents are compiled as per the requirements of State Council on standardization of administrative approval.

Since the Nov 1st 2017 implementation of  "MoA Announcement 2569-Data Requirements on Pesticide Registration", subsequent registration applications have been subject to increased data requirements and elevated criteria. Other changes include but not limited to the abolishment of temporary registration and mandatory risk assessment. Compared with the previous regulation, MoA Order 10 of 2008, Announcement 2569 includes significant improvements in text structure and information transparency. A comparative analysis between the new and old version offers useful information to aid companies in adapting to new requirements. Chapter Reorganization in Regulation Text In the 2008 version, hygienic pesticides, rodenticides, biochemical pesticides, microbial pesticides, botanical pesticides, GMOs and natural enemy pesticides are defined as special pesticides and their registration requirements were incorporated in an independent chapter similar to the individual chapters  detailing requirements of new active ingredients, new formulated pesticides, me-too and technical concentrations(TKs). In the main body, each of these chapters consists of 3 sub-chapters, corresponding to the requirements for field trial application, temporary registration and full registration. In the new data requirements, three types of biopesticide have equal chapter allocation as chemical pesticides. The requirements for manufacturing “use product” (TC/TK) and end-use product (formulation) are respectively compiled in 2 sub-chapters.  Furthermore,  “atypical” products including agricultural GMOs and natural enemies have been removed from the new data requirements. GMOS are regulated under agricultural GMO regulations and natural enemies are subject to significantly decreased registration data requirements. Conditions for post registration including use scope expansion, amendment to application method and dose are refined in Chapter VI