The EU's New Impact on American Environmental Regulation

Abstract

Due to its increasing size and growing regulatory momentum, the European Union is quickly becoming an alternative power center to the United States in the field of environmental policy. Within the past several years, there has consequently been an emerging and discernible trend of EU policy and law on the environmental laws and policy of United States. This piece explores the new European chemicals legislation on Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) as one example of this "back impact." Because REACH will affect virtually all multinational corporations, its impacts will be global, including the United States. The article explores some of the public policy consequences of this new phenomenon, in which the U.S. is on the receiving end of regulatory policy crafted in Brussels.

Due to its increasing size and growing regulatory momentum, the European Union is quickly becoming an alternative power center to the United States in the field of environmental policy. Within the past several years, there has consequently been an emerging and discernible trend of EU policy and law on the environmental laws and policy of United States. This piece explores the new European chemicals legislation on Registration, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) as one example of this "back impact." Because REACH will affect virtually all multinational corporations, its impacts will be global, including the United States. The article explores some of the public policy consequences of this new phenomenon, in which the U.S. is on the receiving end of regulatory policy crafted in Brussels.