Chemical Reciprocity: A Substance-Specific Framework for Regulatory Review

Differences between chemical regulations can reveal useful evidence, but they do not establish that one jurisdiction is consistently safer or that foreign restrictions can be imported without examining their scope. This paper proposes a substance-specific mechanism for reviewing regulatory differences. A qualifying peer decision would trigger a public, substance-and-use-specific evidence dossier. A temporary restriction would require a separate domestic finding, legal authority, proportionate scope, and a review deadline. Two food-color examples illustrate the distinction: the European Union's removal of titanium dioxide from food uses, and the United States' revocation of FD&C Red No. 3 with future compliance dates. The cases concern color-additive regulation, not the GRAS pathway, and do not cover pesticides or industrial chemicals. An October 2026 account also distinguishes FDA's proposed mandatory GRAS notices from an enacted requirement. The proposed contribution is a transparent decision workflow, a case-record template, and an evaluation design for administrative performance. It does not estimate avoided illness, perform a new toxicological assessment, or supply operative legislative text. Reciprocity is interpreted as a duty to examine credible evidence, with safeguards against both regulatory delay and unjustified substitution. Status: Policy working paper, version 1.0; not peer reviewed. The Maha Principle: Policy Working Papers, No. 02. No new toxicological study, completed intervention or dataset is reported. Provenance and related work: Developed from the Maha Strategies policy platform. Related to Paying for Nutrition, the first policy paper. The companion book is The Maha Principle: The Architecture of Human Flourishing by Mayone Maha Rajan: paperback (ISBN 9798160702506) and Kindle ebook (ASIN B0H62WLMT5). The book provides philosophical motivation, not empirical validation. Disclosure: ChatGPT generated manuscript passages and assisted with research, adaptation, checking and formatting. The author directs and approves the release and accepts responsibility for the content, and has a commercial interest in the companion book.