China MEP 7 Timetabled for Major Changes Based on Public Feedback Received to Date

The comments received on the draft revision of the Measures on the Environmental Management of New Chemical Substances mainly focus on 5 aspects: scope of application, applicant, and submission of materials and information protection, requirements for registration and record notification, as well as tracking management. Enterprises can still submit their comments on the draft revision of the Measures during its notification period. There will be a transitional period before the final enforcement of the draft revision of the Measures.

During the training course of environmental management of new chemical substances held at Jinan on Sept 18, 2019, Ms. Ling Lu from China’s Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center (SCC) under the MEE introduced that more than 500 comments on the proposed amendments have been received by Aug 16^th, 2019. There are 51 articles included in the draft revision of the Measures (CL-Translation ^[1]) and public comments have been received proposing amendments to each of the 51 articles. However, Ms. Lu said that many comments received from enterprises were based on their individual interests, while the MEE should consider the overall national situations.

In addition, Ms. Lu highlighted that relevant enterprises can still submit their comments on the notification draft of the Measures before the final date for comments which is supposed to be on November of this year according to the WTO notification. There will be a transitional period before the final enforcement of the draft revision of the Measures which may be adopted by October 2020 (CL News ^[2]).

Ms. Lu further explained that the proposed changes of the draft revision of the Measures focus on 5 aspects of scope of application, applicant, and submission of materials and information protection, requirements for registration and record notification, as well as tracking management.

As for the scope of application, Ms. Lu stated that the test, detection and identification of new chemical substances belong to scientific research. In addition, it was clarified that new chemical substances imported from foreign countries to Bonded Zones, Free Trade Zones, Export Processing Zones and other special customs supervision zones should all be registered. Ms. Lu also said that the relevant departments will discuss whether the raw materials of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, veterinary drugs, cosmetics, food, food additives, feed, feed additives, fertilizers, radioactive substances, etc. should be exempted or not.

Moreover, enterprises cared about the time limit and CBI requirements for substances being listed in the IECSC most. Ms. Lu explained that the time limit and CBI requirements for substances being listed in the IECSC should be discussed later and she also introduced the relevant legislations on it in the U.S and Japan. As for some other comments proposed on the requirements for registration and record notification, submission of materials and information protection, as well as the applicant will also be discussed and illustrated in the future supporting documents. While, some comments proposed by enterprises were out of their personal interpretation on the Measures, for example, many enterprises asked whether the processors can be the applicants. According to Ms. Lu, processors can also be the applicants, and processors who changed the usage of the substances shall also be the applicants of the substances.

Ms. Lu also introduced the Environmental Risk Assessment and Control Regulation for Chemical Substances in her speech. According to Ms. Lu, the relevant departments will continue to review and audit the Regulation and the MEE may continue to seek public comments to guide future changes to the Regulation.