On Mar 13th, 2018, Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published on its website the draft revision to the Implementation Rules of Regulations on Administration of Monitored Chemicals. The draft revision is open to public consultation for a month until Apr 13th.
China signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (CWC) in 1993 and became a state party to the Convention. To fulfill the obligations of the CWC, China published the Regulations on Administration of Monitored Chemicals (referred as “Regulations” hereafter) in 1995. And on Mar 10th, 1997, a month before the CWC took effect, China published the Implementation Rules of the Regulations on Administration of Monitored Chemicals (referred as “Implementation Rules” hereafter).
The so-called “monitored chemicals” in the Regulations are divided into 4 categories:
Category 1: chemicals can be used as chemical weapons;
Category 2: chemicals can be used as the precursors of chemical weapons;
Category 3: chemicals can be used as the main raw materials of chemical weapons;
Category 4: other specified organic chemicals excluding dynamites and pure hydrocarbons.
The manufacturers, operators, and users of the monitored chemicals are subject to a series of compliance obligations.
With the deeper implementation of the CWC, the priority of work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has changed from destroying the chemical weapons to monitoring and inspecting the industrial facilities. China has more industrial facilities to be monitored than any other country in the organization. So the transformation of work priority demands improvement of the Implementation Rules.
MIIT has started the research and discussion on the revision since 2016 and asked for opinions from both the industry and the local industry and information technology authorities. The main revisions include:
The competent authority for the management of the monitored chemicals is changed from the former Ministry of Chemical Engineering to MIIT.
The conditions and procedures of the administrative licensing are improved. But no new administrative licenses are added.
The management of the category 2 monitored chemicals is further specified.
The data declaration system of the monitored chemicals is further improved. The record requirements on the category 2, 3, 4 monitored chemicals are added.
The draft revision supplements the obligations in regards to the international inspection.
The requirements on the storage and transportation of monitored chemicals are deleted because State Council Decree 591 has already provided detailed requirements on those areas.
