New partnership to help UK food, cosmetics and chemicals exporters with compliance for East Asian markets

17 December 2020

 

A major new international business partnership has been launched by Chamber International to help UK food, cosmetics and chemicals businesses trade with China and other East Asian countries.

Because of safety issues relating to products in these categories, they are often subject to complex regulations, requiring producers to be specially registered, and the goods themselves to satisfy difficult testing, packaging, storage and labelling requirements.  As requirements vary from country to country, discovering exactly what they are and how to meet them can be an onerous task.  For instance: What are the steps for a foreign cosmetic range to get approved for sale in China? How can British-produced foods achieve Halal-approval for Indonesia?  Do South Korea’s rules for the packaging, storage and transport of hazardous chemicals mean that it will be too difficult for us to sell to customers there?

It’s small wonder that, though East Asia’s fast-growing markets offer potentially great rewards to exporters, some are put off before they learn much about such regulations, fearing the costs might too great, or worrying that they lack the expertise to fully understand what it will take for their products to be compliant.

Enter ChemLinked, founded in Beijing 8 years ago, now the market-leading compliance specialist in this field, with clients including P&G, Lilly, Unilever and BP, and a source of in-market information that Chamber International has used for some time already.

The new deal, signed on 2 December, gives Chamber International’s clients special access to ChemLinked’s extensive, constantly-updated database and expertise, which is focused primarily on China’s rapidly evolving and increasingly sophisticated regulatory frameworks (including Taiwan), and also includes those of Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, India and Australia. 

ChemLinked’s international marketing manager Kallen Chen says: “ChemLinked has considerable expertise in market access requirements and brand management. We are pleased to be working alongside Chamber International in this new way, and hope that together we can help more UK exporters find success in the Asia Pacific region.”

The partnership with ChemLinked adds to Chamber International’s global network of specialists, and perfectly complements the know-how provided by other regional partners such as Dezan Shira & Associates (business services, tax, accounting), Regroup China (digital media and ecommerce), and British chambers of commerce such as those in China and Thailand.

Chamber International director, Tim Bailey, says: “This ground-breaking new relationship brings ChemLinked’s compliance expertise into the reach of many more businesses in the UK, and will enable them to take their products to East Asia’s fast-growing markets with confidence, knowing they are in good hands.  We’re very excited about this development.”

 

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