19 July 2022, China MEE announced that the 22 substances have fulfilled the requirements for IECSC supplementation and will be managed as existing chemical substances. CIRS warmly reminds that related enterprises must make sure whether their substances are existing substances. The Provisions on Environmental Administration of New Chemical Substances (MEE Order No. 12) require enterprises to complete new substance registration/record before manufacturing or importing, or they may face various punishments. To find whether the substance is existing substance, please search CIRS APCISS system.

China’s chemical inventory of existing chemical substances is IECSC, which stands for the Inventory of Existing Chemical Substances Produced or Imported in China (IECSC). There are two parts of IECSC, public part and classified/confidential part. Companies can check out the public part by themselves and shall only enquire Authorities for classified/confidential part. If substances are not listed in the public part, companies have to submit a formal enquiry to SCC to check whether a substance is listed in the confidential part. The enquiry costs 3000 RMB.

In January 2022, the RCEP Agreement entered into force, covering 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. After RCEP comes into effect, more than 90% of the trade of goods in the region will eventually achieve zero tariffs, which involves the chemical industry with more than 1,000 tariff numbers of RCEP origin rules, benefiting the import and export trade of chemicals. Within the RCEP coverage, most countries, including China, have adopted GHS classification and labelling systems, which requires the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) and labels of chemicals to comply with the GHS-related regulations and standards of each country and region.

In health toxicology study, in vitro methods usually utilizes isolated organs, in vitro cultured bacteria, cells or organelles, and biological simulations in the laboratories to refine, reduce and replace traditional animal tests. In vitro methods are developed to protect animal welfare, which is a major focus in testing currently. At present, in vitro methods for skin corrosion/irritation, eye irritation, and skin sensitization have been greatly developed, and have been applied in EU REACH registration. China is also advancing the application of in vitro methods step by step. For example, under the previous Measures for Environmental Management of New Chemical Substances (MEE Order No.7), positive results generated by in vitro skin corrosion/ irritation and eye irritation methods are accepted.

Under the requirements of revised Provisions on Environmental Administration of New Chemical Substances (MEE Order No. 12), certificate holders of regular notification under MEP Order No. 7 and the registered substances are regarded as hazardous new substances subject to priority environmental administration, as well as part of certificate holders of regular registration under MEE Order No. 12 shall submit the 2021 annual activity report before 30 Apr. 2022.

CIRS has launched the Joint Submission and Data Sharing Platform for New Chemical Substance (China SIEF) to help related enterprises significantly reduce the compliance costs for new chemical substance registration in China. Through this platform, you may: Search the information of the registered substances as well as the enterprise information; Significantly reduce the registration fee through joint submission and data sharing; and Reduce the compliance cost by selling data

Recently, Chinese has started to review whether the products contain new substances via automatic check or on site spot check. If the products are found containing new substances, related enterprises need to provide registration/ record certificate before exporting, or export and export of products will be affected. In order to make enterprises better understand the obligations under new substances registration in China, CIRS is to provide the answers to some questions of co