On February 8th, 2017, Premier Li Keqiang presided over an executive meeting of the State Council, during which the draft of the revised Regulations on Pesticide Administration was released. The draft document focuses on the quality and safety of agricultural products. New regulatory requirements include:
The Ministry of Agriculture will be the sole regulatory authority and will be tasked with complete control of both pesticide production and management.
A new business license system will be implemented.
Pesticide usage will be discouraged with an emphasis placed on reducing the overall volume of pesticides used during crop cultivation.
The supervision of highly toxic pesticides will be more stringent.
Secondly, the pesticide producer and marketer will be responsible for the safety and efficacy of the pesticides. For pesticides which pose serious hazards or high risks a mechanism for timely product recall must be developed. Thirdly, production and retail of fake pesticides will be subject to significantly increased punitive measures.
