On 1 July 2020, China ICAMA issued an official letter to its provincial subsidiaries regarding the registration amendment to multi-element pesticides. China revamped its pesticide regulation system in 2017 with elevated requirements, aimed to reduce the number of pesticides registered and manufacturers. The multi-element pesticides with the same active ingredients and formulation type can be registered with a maximum of 3 compounding ratios. The new registration and renewal of pesticide with an extra compounding ratio will no longer be acceptable under the new regulation.

On June 19, 2020, The Vietnamese Ministry of Health promulgated Circular 11/2020/TT-BYT, aimed to renew the list of active ingredients prohibited or restricted from uses in household insecticides and disinfectants.  A total of 10 active ingredients were added into the prohibited list, namely Chlorpyrifos ethyl, Hexythiazox, Fipronil, Beta-cyfluthrin, Cyfluthrin, Trichlorfon, Diazinon, Acephate, Malathion and Methanol.

On June 19, 2020, the General Office of the National Health Commission opened a 30-day consultation on a notice concerning the enhanced regulation of disinfection products during the Covid-19 control, aimed to resume the normal record-filing management of non-new disinfectants and ensure the safety and effectiveness of disinfection products produced in China, as well as intensify the ex-post surveillance of disinfection products already been placed on the market.

On 4 June, the Chinese Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs invited a 30-day consultation on the list of Class I agricultural pests, which was drafted as per the “Regulation for the Prevention and Control of Agricultural Pests”.

Despite the widespread suspension after the environmental rectification and the explosion in Yancheng, the Chinese agrochemical industry maintained an output of 2.25 million tons in 2019, a slight growth from 2.22 million tons in 2018, but a 40% decline from 3.74 million tons in 2015. The total revenue of the top 100 agrochemical companies up 61.3% from 2015 to 183.6 billion Yuan and the contribution of these companies to the Chinese agrochemical industry grew from 35.4% in 2015 to 80.04% in 2019.

On June 8, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs released the Announcement 269 to promulgate the scope, data requirements and enforcing details for the registration of pesticide under export-only purpose, a long-standing issue after China’s pesticide regulatory reform since 2017. The measure settled this time will help facilitate consolidation among Chinese agrochemical industry as SMEs would find it increasingly difficult to access such shortcut to overseas market.

On June 1, 2020, Thailand began to impose a ban on paraquat and chlorpyrifos, following the Notice of the Ministry of Industry on the List of Hazardous Substances issued in mid-May. It re-categorized 5 substances as the Type 4 hazardous substances prohibited from production, import, export, use and possession, namely paraquat, chlorpyrifos, chlorpyrifos-methyl, paraquat dichloride and paraquat dichloride bis methyl sulfate. 

The number of pesticides newly registered in China has plummeted from 4326 in 2018 to 294 in 2019 and one of the main causes is the elevated data requirements newly enforced. As an essential component of a dossier, product chemistry data is usually firstly reviewed by the competent authorities. In a training course organized by the Chinese Crop Protection Industry Association in June, Ms. Nancy Shen, technical supervisor of REACH24H, concluded the similarity and differences in the data requirements and exchanged her long years of experience in registering pesticides in China, EU and the United States.