On May 28, the GACC announced that China will bring into effect the Implementation Rules for Supervision over Pre-Shipment Inspection of Import Solid Wastes Usable as Raw Materials (hereinafter as the Implementation Rules) from June 1, 2018.

The Implementation Rules, with 38 articles in total, are divided into five parts: general provisions, pre-shipment inspection, filing management, supervisory management, and supplementary provisions. The main contents include: pre-shipment inspection of such import waste materials shall be undertaken by qualified third-party inspection agencies; the General Administration of Customs shall, by means of filing management, verify whether a third-party inspection agency is qualified for the pre-shipment inspection and shall, by means of supervisory management such as on-site inspection, verification, tracking the environmental quality of goods, and revocation of filing, cope with violations of laws and regulations so as to standardize the pre-shipment inspection process and the operations of the inspection agencies concerned.

The pre-shipment inspection will effectively mitigate the risks with import waste materials and improve customs efficiency. The Implementation Rules can further improve the inspection system on import waste materials, intensify the supervision over the sources of import waste materials, thus reducing the risk of illegally imported wastes and enhancing the eco-environmental security in China. Meanwhile, the Implementation Rules will help strengthen supervision on agencies during and after pre-shipment inspection, and enable the market to play the decisive role in resource allocation so as to create a fair, orderly competitive environment for the inspection agencies.