The Yangtze River Protection Law [1] was previously adopted by China’s top law-making body in late 2020 and will take effect starting from March 1, 2021.
A high concern among the chemical sector with regard to the Law is that, a ban will be imposed on the waterway transport of highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals which are prohibited from inland waterway transport by the State in the Yangtze River basin.
According to the Regulations on the Control over Safety of Hazardous Chemicals (a.k.a Decree 591) [2], “highly toxic chemicals” refer to chemicals which are marked as “highly toxic” in the remarks column of the China Inventory of Hazardous Chemicals (2015) [3]; and other hazardous chemicals which are prohibited from inland waterway transport by the State refer to chemicals included in the List of Hazardous Chemicals Prohibited from Inland Waterway Transport (2019) [4].
The administrations of transport of people’s governments at or above the county level in the Yangtze River basin are required to work together with relevant departments at the same level to enhance the regulation of hazardous chemicals transport in waters of the basin.
