Comments to AQSIQ's Administrative Measures on General Certification of Imported Food (Draft for Comments)
2017-07-31 | Beijing, Shanghai
1. General Comments
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (the European Chamber) attaches great importance to the call for comments on the Administrative Measures on General Certification of Imported Food (Draft for Comments) (the Measures) issued by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ). The European Chamber is grateful to have the opportunity to comment on the Measures from an industry perspective.
Since its inception, the European Chamber has attached great importance to the communication with various ministries and other government agencies, and has been actively involved in the call-for-comment process. The European Chamber welcomes the government’s efforts in protecting food safety. Welcomed and praised by Chinese consumers, the Chamber’s member companies adhere to the “in China, for China” principle, comply with relevant Chinese laws and regulations, and are committed to providing safe, high quality and delicious food to the Chinese consumers. The European Chamber believes that as the first person responsible for food safety, enterprises should stick to strict self-discipline, fair competition, improve the level of production processes, and provide the Chinese consumers with more high quality products to meet their needs.
We fully understand and respect the efforts that the AQSIQ has made on the food safety in China. Yet the notification on the Administrative Measures on General Certification of Imported Food may bring barriers to exporting to China if simple, practicable and cost-saving solution could not be achieved by exporting countries and China. After studying the official document and consult with members, we would like to raise the AQSIQ’s attention on the below points:
(1) Manage certification requirements per food safety risk. The current Administrative Measures do not distinguish food with high safety risk (e.g., dairy products, meat products, etc.) from those with comparatively low risk (e.g., confectionery, non-alcoholic beverages, grain products, etc.). They do not follow the spirit of the Food Safety Law (FSL) or the practice adopted by the international society. Specifically, Article 21 of FSL explicitly states that the assessment result of food safety risk is the scientific basis for food safety supervision and management. The current mandatory import certification for foods of high safety risk is established on this basis. Subject all food products to mandatory import certificate, China is replacing its risk-based food safety management with a one-cut approach, presuming all food products to be imported are of high risk. This presumption is groundless and not built on any scientific basis. Furthermore, the Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification System established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is fully based on risk analysis principles. The Guidelines for the Design, Operation, Assessment and Accreditation of Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CAC/GL 26-1997) explicitly provide that “the frequency and intensity of controls by inspections systems should be designed so as to take account of risk…” Therefore, a mandatory import certification program with no distinction between food with high safety risk and those with low risk is not in line with either the domestic or international practice. Accordingly, the Chamber proposes to remove food with lower safety risk, e.g., grain products, biscuits, chocolates, candies, etc. from the scope of food products subject to import certification. In the event no complete carve-out is adopted for foods of lower risk in the finalized Administrative Measures, we expect some preferential treatment are considered. For example, simplify the certification requirements, reduce the frequency of certification for those products to be imported to China, or make the certificate valid for a certain period of time, rather than forcing enterprises to provide licenses for products in every batch.
(2) Facilitate trade. Simple and practicable template is expected; and better to combine with the current certificate for exporting to China.
(3) Unqualified Certificate Measurement. Criteria of disqualified certificate which may lead to the rejection of the certificate is required to be clarified; and for the situation of rejection to one authorized agency may cause to even suspend all certificates from that country/region, fair solutions are urged for those goods produced by other qualified producers in that region/country.
(4) Complexity of the trade model. Considering the complexity of the trade pattern under the global market, suggest AQSIQ officials to pay more attention to the goods imported into China by distribution centres and to accept the certificate issued by the distribution centres.
(5) Food ingredients. Considering that the imported food ingredients will not be directly consumed, the Chamber hopes that the AQSIQ does not cast requirements on it.
(6) Grace period. To ensure normal foreign trade, the Chamber hopes the AQSIQ to provide longer grace period for different exporting countries, so that both the AQSIQ and exporting countries have sufficient time to prepare.
(7) Scope of application. The current draft does not define “import”, thus, leaving it ambiguous as to whether food distributed via cross-border e-commerce will be subject to the same set of rules. We wish the AQSIQ could give some further clarifications in this regard to guide the industry.