On 5 Feb 2013, China General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) publish the Announcement 23 of 2013 to revise the “Implementing Rules of Manufacturing License on Pesticide”, which will be of major significance for the Chinese agrochemical manufacturers.

On 26 February 2013, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authorities (APVMA) released the preliminary review report on the fenamiphos, which proposed ban on the insecticide/nematocide. The APVMA is inviting further submission from interested person on the findings until 31 May 2013.

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) New Zealand will hold public hearings on 4 Mar in Wellington and 7 Mar in Auckland for a group reassessment of organophosphate and carbamate (OPC) based insecticides used for plant protection purposes. The Chief Executive of the EPA New Zealand has released the notification of application and consultation report of the reassessment in early November last year, and the public submission period has just ended recently.

On 24 Jan 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture published the Announcement No. 1891 to grant testing qualification for pesticide registration. The 17 testing facilities are allowed to conduct full-component analysis for pesticide technical materials in the next three years. Of the 17 facilities, 10 of them are Chinese GLP qualified and therefore  entitled as “GLP-Compliant” institutions. (See table 1).

On 28 Dec 2012, China published the “Chinese Inventory of Management of Imported and Exported Pesticide (2013)”, which has come into force since 1 Jan 2013.

On 28 Dec 2012, China Ministry of Agricultural (MOA) and General Administration of Customs (GAC) jointly published the Announcement1880 to update the “Inventory of Pesticide under Import and Export Management in China”.

The Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and the Standardization Administration (SAC) announced on 20 Dec  2012 the abolishment of national standards (GB) for the rare earth nitrate plant growth regulators (PGR).

The MoA published the Announcement No 1876 on 19 Dec 2012 and granted the qualification to 29 testing facilities for pesticide registration. The 29 testing institutions are allowed to conduct toxicological studies for ICAMA registration in the next five years. 

The CCPIA revealed that “Limit Standard of Harmful Solvents for Emulsifiable Concentrates Pesticide Preparations" has been finalized and will be issued in no time.The standard sets the limit level of several harmful solvents which are commonly used in the emulsifiable concentrates (EC) of the pesticide preparations.

Last month in Hangzhou, official from the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA) has listed ten active ingredients most frequently registered with ICAMA certification in the past three years.