The Special Rules were promulgated in 2007 after scathing criticism was leveled at China by both domestic and international interests due to China’s long history of product quality and safety issues. The Special Rules were designed to essentially fill in the cracks and loopholes left by other laws and regulations and to cohesive management of consumer product safety and quality. China has a comparatively complete legal system governing the scope of what would normally be defined as consumer goods. This legal framework consists of 11 laws and 22 regulations including Food Hygiene Law, Law on Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products, Product Quality Law Pharmaceutical Administration Law, Regulation on the Administration of Hog Slaughter, Regulation on the Administration of Animal Feed and Feed Additives, Regulation on the Implementation of Food Safety Law and Regulation on the Hygiene Supervision over Cosmetics and the Regulation on the Implementation of the Food Safety Law etc.. Nevertheless, despite the strong legal foundation provided by these laws China’s regulatory authorties have underperformed in terms of their enforcement, supervision and oversight on almost all links in the associated supply chains. The special rules also provide regulatory authorties with a useful tool to help realize an improvement in product quality and safety.

Recently, Beijing authorities upheld a decision to impose an administrative sanction on a famous e-commerce platform after it was discovered selling non-compliant water dispensers. Beijing NHC imposed a fined of 310,000 Yuan, which exceeds normal sanction guidelines issued in China’s water product regulations. Based on our analysis of the explanation released by authorities it appears that authorites tend to view water related products as consumer products with the potential to impact human health which are specifically regulated by “special rules” . Going forward we expect water related product compliance violations, particuarly those that impact the safety of products to be subject to fines similar to those for cosmetics, medical devices, medicines, household appliance, children’s toys, labor protection goods, auto parts and other life and health related products.

China’s overseas consumption maintained an annual average growth of 25.2% from 2005 to 2014 and the consumption rose to a record of 1,200 billion CNY in 2015, of which 680 billion CNY was for overseas shopping. At the same time, slowing export earnings and investment have left national consumption the only remaining economic driver, which contribute 66.4% of the economy. As China has cut import tariffs on 1,449 categories of consumer products starting from 1 Jul 2018 and the minimum income-tax threshold is expected to be elevated by October this year. Increasing competition between homemade and imported products becomes foreseeable, especially China’s industrial upgrading has been already well underway. This article combines China’s quality legislative program on consumer products, plus the expert analysis and comment on these latest economic policies, as well as a statistical analysis on distributor/purchaser preferences on different product sectors.  Quality Improvement Plan On 19 May 2015, China presented the national strategy on “Made in China 2025” to move up its position in the global value chain and the importance of consumer product quality standardization and improvement was then proposed by Premier Li Keqiang during the Congress meeting. China believes quality legislation and monitoring mechanism can expand more demand/ availability to domestic producers and force the technological upgrading of producers and upstream equipment manufacturer/raw material suppliers in all dimension. On 6 Sep. 2016, the State Council promulgated the “Improvement Plan for the Standardization and Quality of Consumer Products”, which outlines the key objectives and implementing strategies and priority on different product sectors. China will continue the perfecting of standard system by developing and refining of new/existing quality standard, as well as branding of homemade products and higher premi

Rice contributes to 60% of the world’s grain supply and rice growing/consumption regions tend have the largest populations and largest economies in the world. Given the likelihood of increased global demand for rice, we can expect a concomitant increase in the paddy herbicide market, which already accounts for 40% of the plant protection products used. The paddy herbicide market is characterized by diverse combinations of active ingredients and is influenced by multiple factors such as climate, agricultural practices, and agricultural development level, national food security policies and international trade. To help readers better comprehend this niche and variable market, this analysis summarizes the scale and characteristics of rice plantation, herbicide use and market conditions in the major rice growing regions globally. The global rice growing area was 160.1 million hectares in 2016, up 0.8% year-on-year. The overall plantation area has been stable in recent years. Rice is universally planted in temperate and tropical regions and the top rice-growing country is India, followed by China, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand. India was second behind China in rice output due to its moderate productivity of 2.6 ton per hectare. China is the largest and the most efficient rice producer with an annual output of 144.9 million tons and boasts a per unit output of 4.8 ton per hectare. large Plantation Area, Output adn Annual Changes in Major Rice Growing Countries in 2016 Rice price, inventory, weather condition and currency exchange rate are the major factors affecting rice plantation and paddy herbicide market. In 2016, the United States, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines have increased rice area while the plantation decreased in India, Japan, Pakistan and Brazil. Although rice price was low, the weather condition was conducive to high overall production volume in Asia. Self-sufficiency policies in Indonesia and Malaysia also he

The European Union authorisation is a new form of authorization which was recently introduced into the EU Biocidal Products Regulation (BPR), promulgated on 1st September, 2013. Based on the new article, this Union-level authorization will allow products to be sold in all EU countries at one same time. This will simplify the assessment of applications and reduce the cost and time required compared with the reporting route of obtaining national authorizations in multiple member states.

Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) are among the most widely used disinfectants in the world and are used on medical devices, common surfaces, food containers and the human body etc. To assess the risk/hazards posed by these substances the Chinese health inspection and disease control authority sampled 193 commercial QAC disinfectants (on the market since 2009) and analyzed the product origin, composition, use scope, target microbial organisms and label claims. A total of 12 imported and 181 homemade QAC disinfectants were sampled from 21 provinces, consisting of 187 liquid formulations, 5 spray formulations and 1 powdery formulation. Adherence to GB GB26369-2010 was investigated. It was revealed that benzalkoniums, DDAC and DDAB are the most common QACs and over 20% of human-use disinfectants contain excess level of QACs.  

China's food and catering market has grown rapidly and with this growth we have also seen an increase in usage of food use disinfectant products which has led to concerns revolving around food safety. China’s disinfection legal framework is seriously underdeveloped compared with EU and the US who have established complete assessment, registration and authorization system of biocides and food contact substances/materials. In this analysis, we will explore the scope and limitation of Chinese food use disinfectants regulations, as well as the pitfalls to look out for when accessing China’s emerging market. Inventory Management of Food-Use Disinfectants In 2010, former NHFPC issued the “Inventory of Raw Materials/Ingredients for Food-Use Disinfectants”(hereinafter as “the Inventory”), consisting of 47 active ingredients and 21 raw materials allowed for use in the disinfection of food, tableware, food-contact instruments, equipment and packing materials, as well as food containers. Furthermore, food additives that included into the “GB 2760-National Food Safety Standard for Food Additive Use” can also be used as auxiliary components in food-use disinfectants.

China's population is estimated to peak by 2030 reaching 1.5 billion and per capita food demand will be stable at 500 kg annually. To maintain self-sufficiency in food supply, China needs to increase grain output from 617.9 million tons in 2017 to 634 million tons by 2020 and 700 million tons by 2030. This article will take a look at the historical data on grain production and agricultural technology in recent decades. We will also look at the major challenges facing China such as environmental issues, decreased arable land and slow growth in productivity.

Since the last time NHFPC/NHC approved new disinfectant or sterilizer/disinfecting apparatus was back in 2014, when the management of existing products was delegated to provincial departments, hygienic and safety assessment became the only feasible way to have access to the disinfectants and sterilizers market in China. To help improve compliance with China’s disinfectant/sterilizer regulations, this article will focus on the enforceability and most practical issues involved in the premarketing assessment of disinfection products.

In China, disinfection products are defined as disinfectant, sterilizing agent, antimicrobial agent, medical/common disinfector/sterilizer, packed-sterilized articles with sterilization marking, biological and chemical indicators of sterilization effect and various hygiene products including wet wipe and hygiene/disinfection wipes. The definition, classification, national registration/ provincial record filling of novel/existing disinfectant and sterilizer are complete while the legal framework of other disinfection products types is comparatively absent. As disinfectant-carrying wipes are rapidly developing in China, the term “vehicle disinfectant” has been proposed by the NHFPC/NHC and would affect regulation of certain consumer products.  With the rise of emerging infectious diseases such as SARS and human avian Influenza and so on, a sort of wet wipes called "hygiene wet wipe" or "disinfection wet wipe" have appeared on the market and are developing rapidly in China. As wet wipes are traditionally categorized as hygienic products and exempted from premarketing evaluation on its antimicrobial/disinfection claims, safety concerns have long been discussed by regulators. In this article, we will explore the statutory definition, classification, technical criteria, and regulatory forecast of wet wipes. Evolution of Product Definition Wet Wipes refer to fabric or paper-based products used for the cleansing/ germicidal/disinfecting of human body, common surface and other surfaces. The hygienic and germicidal criteria for wet wipe were firstly specified under the “GB 15979-2002: Hygienic Standard for Disposable Sanitary Products” together with other disposable products such as gloves, respirators, sanitary napkins and diapers, etc. In 2011, China issued a national standard exclusively for wet wipes, the “GBT/27728-2011: Wet Wipes”, which classifies wet wipes into human-use wipes and article-u