CRAC 2014 – Cosmetics Regulation in Taiwan

Mrs. Sandra Huang, Executive Consultant of Sinew Consulting Group at CRAC Shanghai

The two day long Chemical Regulatory Annual Conference hosted by Reach24h Consulting Group has successfully concluded. This informative conference attended by industry, international government officials, NGOs and other experts across a wide array of industries has gone from strength to strength in recent years and grown to become China’s premier chemical, cosmetic, food and agrochemical regulatory conference.

Of particular interest was a presentation on cosmetic regulations in Taiwan given by Sandra Huang and attracted great interest from the industry representatives also in attendance. Sandra’s speech detailed how Taiwan’s market is relatively small and represents just 0.7% of the global cosmetics market (about $3.3 billion). Foreign brands occupy 50% of Taiwan’s market. Taiwan’s market also has a consumption per person ranking 3rd in Asia after Japan and Korea. The current cosmetics administrative and supervisory structure is undergoing change towards more self-regulation and simplification of pre-market review as seen in the promotion of voluntary GMP and expedited product review. Sandra noted imported cosmetics products containing no medical, poisonous or potent drugs need only inform the Central Competent Health Authority (CCHA), and general cosmetics products are exempted from this application according to a public notice issued on August 7, 1991. On the other hand, imported cosmetic products containing medical, poisonous or potent drugs (medical cosmetics) are required to register with the CCHA in order to obtain the license for sale in Taiwan. Compared to the cosmetics Hygiene Standard of mainland China, the medical cosmetics standard in Taiwan has more restrictions in terms of permitted ingredients and maximum permitted levels of certain ingredients. It is interesting to note that under Taiwanese regulations the same series of products with the same manufacturer, function and principle components but different colors (such as hair dyes, sunscreen powder etc.) will be registered under the same license in Taiwan.