TSCA is the inventory law for industrial chemicals in the United States. Every chemical you import into the US must either be on the TSCA Inventory or covered by a Pre-Manufacture Notice exemption. There is no “we’ll figure it out at the port” with TSCA. Customs and Border Protection holds shipments at the dock when the importer cannot produce a TSCA certification.
What TSCA actually requires
For a routine commercial chemical import the importer of record must do three things:
- Verify the substance is on the TSCA Inventory. The public inventory is searchable by CAS number on the EPA’s CDX portal. If the substance is on the inventory, you are clear for routine import provided it is for an existing commercial use.
- File a TSCA certification at entry. Customs requires either a positive certification (“the substance is in compliance with TSCA”) or a negative certification (“the substance is not subject to TSCA”). The negative certification covers chemicals used solely as research and development samples, articles, and a small set of other categories.
- Keep records for five years. Importer records must include the supplier, the production batch reference, the CAS number, the quantity, the date of import, and the certification statement. EPA can audit at any point.
What TSCA does not require
TSCA does not regulate finished consumer goods (those fall under CPSC), it does not regulate pesticides (FIFRA), pharmaceuticals (FDA), or food additives (also FDA). If you are importing a chemical intermediate that goes into a regulated end-product, the chemical itself still needs TSCA clearance regardless of what the end-product is.
What changed in 2016 and why it matters
The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act amended TSCA in 2016. The amendment introduced an EPA risk-evaluation process that has been used to restrict chemicals like methylene chloride, NMP, asbestos, and PCE. If you import a chemical that is currently in active risk evaluation, downstream notification rules (Section 8(e)) may apply. The active list is published on the EPA website and changes quarterly.
Practical sourcing notes
When we ship industrial chemicals from Shanghai to a US port, the factory provides the COA (Certificate of Analysis) and the MSDS. Neither document substitutes for a TSCA certification, that is the importer’s responsibility, not the factory’s. We help our US clients prepare the certification language by confirming the CAS number on the COA matches what is filed at entry. If the factory provides a CAS number that resolves to a substance not on the TSCA Inventory, the import will not clear and the cargo sits at the port accumulating demurrage. That is the single most common TSCA failure mode we see, and it is preventable with one CAS lookup before the container loads.
CDR reporting and the four-year cycle
The TSCA Chemical Data Reporting (CDR) rule layers an additional reporting obligation on top of the inventory listing. Manufacturers and importers of chemicals on the inventory must report production volumes and downstream-use information every four years if the volume threshold is met. The 2024 reporting cycle (covering production years 2020 through 2023) applied to chemicals manufactured or imported in volumes above 25,000 lb at a single site. The threshold drops to 2,500 lb for chemicals subject to active TSCA Section 4 test orders or Section 6 risk evaluations. For US importers running multi-substance procurement programmes, the CDR cycle is a documentation discipline worth preparing for: the reports require importer-side data on downstream processors and end uses that the Chinese factory does not have visibility into.
Section 5 PMN versus inventory clearance
Two distinct TSCA pathways apply to imports. A chemical already on the inventory needs only the standard import certification at entry. A chemical not on the inventory (a true new substance) requires a Section 5 Premanufacture Notification (PMN) before any commercial introduction, including imports of even a single sample. The PMN process takes 90 days minimum and costs USD 2,500 to USD 5,000 in EPA fees plus consulting fees. Most chemical imports from China fall under inventory listings; the small number that do not are typically novel polymers or specialty intermediates where the factory or buyer has done the chemistry work. Confirming inventory status before booking the cargo is the simple discipline that avoids the cargo-stuck-at-port outcome.
Related compliance frameworks
TSCA is the US law. EU importers operate under REACH, which is broader and registration-based rather than inventory-based. Australian importers use AICIS. Canadian importers use the DSL. The compliance regime is country-specific, a chemical that clears EU REACH is not automatically TSCA-listed.