General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and

Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China

Notice No. 115 - 2003

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has decided, in accordance with the relevant regulations of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Import and Export Commodity Inspection, to adopt provisional administrative measures on registration of overseas supplier enterprises exporting scrap materials to Mainland China (hereinafter referred to as “supplier enterprises”) with a view to strengthening the supervision and administration of imported scrap materials, protecting environmental sanitation, people’s health, and ensuring the safety of industrial and agricultural production in China. The requirements for the provisional registration of supplier enterprises are as follows:

I.   AQSIQ will accept the application for provisional registration of supplier enterprises from January 1, 2004. From July 1, 2004, no scrap materials exported from the supplier enterprises not provisionally registered with AQSIQ shall be permitted to enter the territory of China, the inspection bodies accredited by AQSIQ shall not accept the application for inspection on and issue certificate for such scrap materials, and the inspection and quarantine authorities at the port of entry shall not accept the application for inspection on such scrap materials.

II.   An supplier enterprise applying for provisional registration shall fulfill the following conditions:

1.    It shall be a legitimate enterprise in its own country (region);

2.    It shall have permanent office or processing location and shall have a considerable operating scale;

3.    It shall have familiarity with and a good understanding of the technical regulations on environmental protection and applicable environmental protection control standards of China, and shall possess the corresponding infrastructures and testing capacity;

4.    It shall have established a corresponding quality assurance system or obtained the corresponding certified certificate on environmental management system;

5.    It shall have relatively stable sources of supply and have environmental protection control measures for the sources of supply;

6.    It shall have no record of being involved in any major quality problems related to safety, hygiene, and environmental protection in the past three years.

III.   When applying to AQSIQ for provisional registration, the supplier enterprise shall submit the following written materials:

1.    Application Form for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials (Annex 1);

2.    Business registration documents (copy);

3.    Document on environmental management system or certified certificate on environmental management system;

4.    Document on the source of supply and environmental protection control measures;

5.    A general description and relevant certificating documents of the safety, hygiene, environmental protection, and quality of the scrap materials exported to China in the past three years;

6.    Other relevant materials required by AQSIQ.

Text materials submitted to AQSIQ in relation to the application for provisional registration shall be in Chinese or English/Chinese bilingual version.

IV.    For the application materials found complying with the requirements through examination, a Notice of Acceptance of the Application for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials (Annex 2) will be issued by AQSIQ. For the application material found not complying with the requirements through examination, AQSIQ shall notify, at one time and within 5 days, the applicant of supplementing or correcting the materials, failure to do which within the deadline being regarded as tantamount to withdrawal of the application. For the application materials found not complying with the regulations of this Notice, the application shall not be accepted, and the applicant will be notified of the reasons.

V.      Within 3 months after issuing the Notice of Acceptance of the Application for Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials, AQSIQ will set up an evaluation group to conduct examination according to the Detailed Rules for On-the-spot Assessment for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials. If the on-the-spot assessment is not needed, the evaluation group will examine the document. The evaluation group shall submit the evaluation report to AQSIQ.

VI.   For those complying with the specific requirements through examination, AQSIQ will grant them permission for provisional registration and issue a certificate for provisional registration with a provisional registration number; for those not complying with the specific requirements through examination, a notification of failure to meet requirements will be issued.

VII.          The provisional registration certificate will be valid for 2 years. Applicants requiring renewing the certificate on its expiry shall submit the renewal application to AQSIQ 3 months prior to the end of the validity period.

VIII.   The supplier enterprises having obtained certificate for provisional registration may apply for pre-shipment inspection upon presentation of the certificate for provisional registration. The inspection and quarantine authorities at the port of entry will accept the application for inspection on the scrap materials imported from the supplier enterprises having obtained the certificate for provisional registration, and will not accept the application for inspection of the supplier enterprises without the certificate for provisional registration. The overseas inspection companies will not accept the application for the pre-shipment inspection from the supplier enterprises without the certificate for provisional registration. For the scrap materials found not up to standard in aspects concerning safety, hygiene, and environmental protection through inspection, the inspection and quarantine authorities at the port of entry shall report the details of the inspection and the name of the supplier enterprise to AQSIQ in a prompt manner.

IX.   For the scrap materials found not up to standard in aspects concerning safety, hygiene, and environmental protection and needed to be returned according to the relevant laws and regulations, the supplier enterprise shall cooperate with the relevant Chinese authorities to go through the procedures for shipping back.

X.   The supplier enterprises applying for provisional registration shall provide the working conditions necessary for the on-the-spot assessment organized by AQSIQ.

XI.   The administration of provisional registration for supplier enterprises of imported scrap materials from the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan region of China may be conducted with reference to this Notice.

Annexes:

1.    Application Form for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials

2.    Notice of Acceptance of the Application for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials

3.    Certificate for Provisional Registration of Overseas Supplier Enterprises of Imported Scrap Materials

December 15, 2003