More discretion will be delegated to the provincial authorities in re-evaluating the qualification of Chinese pesticide producers
China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) released a notice on wednesday to its provincial branches and the China Crop Protection Industry Association(CCPIA), which declared to start its trial of new review procedure of manufacturing licensing on the pesticide manufacturers. The trial will be initiated in Zhejiang, Chongqing and Jiangsu from July 1st, 2012 to June 30th, 2013, indicating that more discretion will be delegated to the provincial level in re-evaluating the qualification of the producers and accelerations on licensing is expected for China pesticide industry.
At present, a pesticide producer will be granted a five years’ validity for its first authorize of manufacturing license. If the producer continues the manufacturing after the expiration, it shall apply for replacing (or extension) the license to its provincial authorities by providing data for re-evaluation. The authorities will pre-examine the data and then submit the data to its upper authorities. Afterwards, CCPIA was entrusted by MIIT in reviewing the data and finally the terminal decision and notify to the public for comments will be made by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
In the new procedure, the experts appointed by MIIT will monthly attend the review committee held at the pilot-province in review the data from the pesticide manufacturers. Their decisions and the data will then be submitted to MIIT and released online for public comments and finally a renewed license will be issued to the producers if no objection has been raised during the comment period, or, the data will be re-examined by the experts orgnized by CCPIA.
MIIT pinpointed that more experiences will be drawn during the pilot period and the trials are expected to be expanded to more provinces. China pesticide industry insiders cheered that more delegation to local authorities will promote the efficiency on pesticide administration and the consolidations among China pesticide industry. Currently, China pesticide industry is ridden with its low efficiency, heavy overcapacity and pollution, as well as the rat races between the SMEs.
