[Comprehensive] Mandatory industry standards, local standards to be canceled

On the afternoon of April 24, the first plenary session of the twenty-seventh session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress was held. Entrusted by the State Council, Tian Shihong, Director of the National Standardization Administration Committee, made a statement on the proposal to discuss the revision of the draft standardization law.

According to reports, with the development of China's national economy and social undertakings, the standard system and management measures established by the current standardization laws cannot fully meet actual needs. In order to solve outstanding problems in practice and better promote the role of the standard in promoting sustained and healthy economic development and overall social progress, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine drafted an amendment to the Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China in accordance with the State Council's "Deepening the Reform Plan for Standardization Work." Submitted for review) , and reported to the State Council in July 2015. The Legal Affairs Office of the State Council has solicited opinions extensively and repeatedly studied and revised with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine to form the "Standardization Law (Revised Draft)". After the revised draft was reviewed and passed at the State Council's executive meeting, it was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for consideration.

The main contents of the draft revision

The current revision of the revised draft mainly includes eight aspects:

1. Expand the scope of standards

From the perspective of international and domestic standardization practice, standardization has broken through the fields of industrial products, engineering construction and environmental protection as stipulated in the current law, and has been widely used in various fields such as agriculture, service industry and social management. In order to give full play to the basic and strategic role of the standard and meet the demand for standardization in practice, the draft expands the scope of standard formulation to areas such as agriculture, industry, service industry and social undertakings.

2. Establish a standardized coordination mechanism

Establishing an authoritative and efficient standardization and coordination mechanism is an important guarantee for important standards to be issued in a timely manner and effective implementation. The draft clearly establishes the standardization and coordination mechanism of the State Council, makes overall plans for major standardization reforms, studies major policies for standardization, and coordinates the formulation and implementation of cross-departmental, cross-field, and major disputed standards.

3. Strengthen the unified management of mandatory standards

Mandatory standards are the basis for production and business activities, are important market rules, and are the bottom line requirements for the operation of the economy and society. They must enhance unity and authority. In order to solve the problems in the formulation of compulsory standards system established by the current law and the contradiction between multiple standards and overlapping standards, the draft abolished mandatory industry standards and local standards , and retained only mandatory national standards. At the same time, the scope of mandatory standards development is strictly limited to “guarantee personal health and safety of life and property, national security, ecological and environmental safety, and meet basic social and economic management requirements.” In order to co-ordinate the management of mandatory national standards and strengthen its authority, mandatory national standards have been approved by the State Council for release or authorized for release.

4. Right to establish city standards

In order to meet the actual needs of the local standardization work, under the current background of the decentralization of administrative and legislative power, the draft decentralizes the formulation of local standards to municipalities and autonomous prefectures in the district. The administrative departments of standardization of the people's governments of the municipalities and autonomous prefectures where they are established shall, based on the special needs of their respective administrative regions and with the approval of the administrative departments of standardization of the people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government, establish the local standards of the administrative regions. Local standards shall be reported to the competent department of standardization administration of the people's government of the province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government, and to the competent administrative department of the State Council for the record.

5. Give the group a standard legal status

Cultivating development group standards is the highlight and focus of this standardization reform. The development of foreign group standards is very mature. Group standards are not only an important part of the foreign standard system, but also the most active and close to the market demand. However, in our country, group standards do not have legal status, which leads to market self-developed standards that quickly reflect demand and cannot be effectively provided. To this end, the draft clearly gives the group a standard legal status and stipulates that “a legally-established social group can formulate group standards”. At the same time, in order to avoid "disruption," the draft stipulates that "the formulation of group standards shall be standardized, guided, and supervised by the department of standardization administration under the State Council. The measures for the management of group standards shall be formulated and announced by the department of standardization administration under the State Council together with relevant administrative departments."

6. Establishment of corporate product and service standards Self-declaration Openness and supervision system

The current "standardization law" establishes the enterprise product standard filing system, which reflects the enterprise's standardized management thinking during the planned economy period and weakens the main responsibility of the enterprise. The draft canceled the current enterprise product standard filing system and required that the product standards implemented by the enterprise should be open to the public on its own initiative and encourage enterprises to make the service standards implemented to the public. At the same time, in order to ensure the effective implementation of the system to facilitate consumer inquiries and comparisons, the draft requirements are unified on the "Enterprise Product Standards Information Public Service Platform". As for the specific disclosure of the contents of the company, the degree of disclosure in detail is decided by the company itself, and the draft only makes the principle requirement.

7. Promote public standards developed by the government

In order to meet the needs of the society for timely, accurate, and convenient access to standard information, and to better play the role of the standard in promoting national economic and social development, the draft clearly defines that mandatory standards should be made public for free access by the public. The state promotes free publicity of recommended standards to the public.

8. Strengthen the management of standards development

In order to ensure that standards can effectively reflect market demand, the draft stipulates the formulation of mandatory standards and recommended standards. It is necessary to investigate the actual needs of the relevant administrative authorities, enterprises, and social organizations when setting up projects, and take various measures in accordance with the principles of convenience and effectiveness. Ways to solicit opinions. For the standard projects that are urgently needed for national economy and social development, priority shall be given to project establishment and the deadline for completion shall be determined. At the same time, the draft establishes a standard implementation information feedback mechanism and stipulates that the State Council’s standardization administrative departments and relevant administrative departments of the State Council, and the local people's governments at the municipal level or above, which are divided into districts, shall carry out regular assessments and reviews of the standards they set. The results of the review should serve as the basis for the revision and repeal of standards.

In order to better play the basic and strategic role of the standard, the revised draft intends to expand the scope of the formulation of standards from the areas of industrial products, engineering construction and environmental protection stipulated in the current law to the fields of agriculture, industry, service industry and social undertakings.

The revised draft stipulates that the current mandatory national, industrial, and local standards should be integrated into mandatory national standards, and that the scope of mandatory national standards should be strictly limited to safeguarding human health and safety of lives and property, national security, ecological environment, and social satisfaction. Technical requirements for basic economic management requirements, and elimination of mandatory industry standards and local standards.

In order to solve the problem of the lack of standard aging, the revised draft further clarified the responsibilities of the State Council's standardization administrative department, relevant administrative departments of the State Council, and local people's governments' standardization administrative departments to formulate recommended national standards, industry standards, and local standards, respectively.

According to the revised draft, in order to better play the role of the standard in promoting the national economy and social development, it is clear that mandatory standards should be made public and available to the public for free inspection. The state promotes free publicity of recommended standards to the public.

The overall consideration for revising the current law is to strictly implement the “Deepening Reform Plan for Standardization Work” to provide a legal basis and institutional guarantee for reforms, while taking into account the practices that have mature experience in practice and consensus among all relevant departments.

It is reported that on April 27, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress will also discuss the motion in groups.

Link standardization method revision background

China's current standardization law was promulgated in 1988 and has been in force for nearly 30 years. It has played a major role in improving the quality and efficiency of products and promoting the development of the national economy. However, with the rapid economic and social development, the current standardization law is no longer adaptable to the new situation and needs to be revised.

First, the scope of the standard is too narrow, mainly limited to industrial products, construction and environmental protection requirements, it is difficult to meet the needs of economic upgrading and efficiency upgrading.

The second is that the mandatory standards are decentralized, the scope is too wide, and the content is overlapping and contradictory, which is not conducive to the establishment of a unified market system.

Third, the standard system is not reasonable enough, and the government has led to the development of too many standards. It has imposed strict standards on the self-determination of market entities such as groups and enterprises, resulting in insufficient standards for effective supply.

Fourth, the imperfect standardization working mechanism restricts the improvement of standardization management efficiency and is not conducive to strengthening post-event supervision.

In recent years, both the NPC and the CPPCC National Committee members have proposed proposals, proposals and proposals for the revision of the standardization law. In order to solve the outstanding problems in practice and better promote the role of the standard in promoting sustained and healthy economic development and overall social progress, the standardization law was amended to include the first type of projects in the legislative plan for the 12th National People's Congress Standing Committee.