. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/TBT/W/185
4 October 2002
(02-5346)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:  English
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM PURSUANT TO SECTION 18
OF THE PROTOCOL ON THE ACCESSION OF
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Submission by the United States
1. The United States welcomes China’s implementation of Agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade (TBT), including the timely submission of its Article 15.2 Statement on Implementation
(G/TBT/2/Add.65), its establishment of an enquiry point and publication of its working procedures,
designation of a notification authority, and participation in meetings of the TBT Committee.  Weappreciate this opportunity to gain a better understanding of how China is implementing its
TBT obligations and seek information on the following questions/concerns:
II. NOTIFICATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
2. In its Article 15.2 Statement, China indicates that technical regulations and other notices will
be published in either the MOFTEC Gazette or the AQSIQ Bulletin.  We have had difficultysubstantiating this as China’s practice, however, and note that none of the notifications China has
made to date of proposed regulations specifically reference publication of the notices in either the
MOFTEC Gazette or AQSIQ Bulletin (for example, B ox 8:  relevant documents).  Instead, references
often cite “public notice ... reference to be decided.”  Noting that the TBT Agreement requires
Members to “...publish a notice in a publication...” (Article 2.9), please clarify how China is, or plans
to, comply with this obligation.
3. Several notifications by China indicated dates of adoption or entry into force that would
appear not to provide a meaningful opportunity for comment by interested parties in other Members
as there would be insufficient time for Chinese authorities to give due consideration to the comments
received before adopting the proposal as final.  We have raised this concern most recently with
G/TBT/N/CHN/5 (circulated on 25 July 2002) concerning the national standard to “Limit quantity of
arsenic, cadmium, lead, chromium, mercury content for fertilizers.”  The United States hassubstantive concerns with this proposal, including questions concerning the scientific basis and
rationale for it.  The right to comment provided by the TBT obligations is an important opportunity to
prevent the creation of unnecessary obstacles to international trade.  WTO members would appear to
have been denied this opportunity given the notification indicates 20 September 2002 as the final date
for comments, and 30 September 2002 as the date of adoption of the final regulation.  It would behelpful for China to clarify what procedures it has in place, or intends to put in place, to ensure
regulators afford a meaningful opportunity to consider comments received.
4. We are aware of 90 draft food hygiene standards that are available on the Ministry of Health’s
website ( www.moh.gov.cn ) for comment by 25 October 2002.  These standards were not notified to
the WTO.  Can China confirm that this is because compliance with the standards, once adopted, will
be voluntary?  If the standards will be mandatory (obligatory), when does China plan to notify them to
the WTO?G/TBT/W/185
Page 2
III. INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
5. In 2002, China promulgated “ Measures for the Administration of Adoption of International
Standards. ”  This measure would appear to limit China’s use of international standards to those
promulgated by the ISO, IEC and ITU.  The TBT Agreement does not limit Members to using
standards from particular bodies, nor does it contain a list of bodies deemed appropriate for purposesof implementing its provisions.  Instead, the TBT Committee decided upon principles which should
guide Members’ participation in the work of intern ational bodies as well as the use of their standards,
recommendations and guidelines (G/TBT/1/Rev.8 (IX)).  Responsibility for implementing the
TBT Committee Decision rests with WTO members (and not the international bodies themselves).
We are concerned that this measure will limit China’s ability to comply with its WTO obligations and
will deny it the possibility of choosing the best standa rd that is available, effective and appropriate for
achieving its legitimate objective.  We have identified examples of this in providing comments inresponse to specific notifications.  Does China have plans to address this problem?  If no action is
being taken, could China please explain why it would limit its options to only 3 standardizing bodies
when other bodies develop international standards that could be relevant, effective and appropriate for
use as a basis for Chinese technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures?
IV. CERTIFICATION
6. The United States appreciates the efforts undertaken by China to establish a single
administrator (the China National Certification and Accreditation Administration, CNCA) and single
“China Compulsory Certification (CCC)” mark, as communicated its 3 December 2001 publication,
“Managing Regulations for Compulsory Product Certification (AQSIQ Ordinance No.5), ” and its
“First Catalogue of (132) Products Subject to Compulsory Certification.”   Detailed comments and
questions have been provided to China.  We would appreciate any further information on
implementation of the CCC mark.  For example, it would be helpful to have information on the
criteria China will use to determine whether additional products will be subject to certification or
eligible to be withdrawn from the list.  In addition, it is our understanding that information on the
authorized testing and certification organizations is available on the AQSIQ website in Chinese andthat there plans to also provide certain informati on in English.  Will information on the procedures for
recognition of conformity assessment bodies and the ones that have been recognized be made
available in English on the AQSIQ website?  What steps has China taken (or plan to take) to eliminate
duplicative conformity assessment requirements (e.g., between the CCC mark and the Ministry of
Information Industry, or between the CCC ma rk and the Ministry of Health/State Drug
Administration)?
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