AQSIQ China

AQSIQ Overview:

AQSIQ stands for "General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine" in China. Its main function is to safeguard the imported cargos in China, and ensure that imported wastes comply with the environmental protection standards and other mandatory requirements or regulations of China.

By AQSIQ regulations, it is mandatory for foreign enterprises, who export waste material to China, to register with AQSIQ. Waste materials from unregistered enterprises will be denied entry, and the requests for inspection and quarantine will not be considered.

To apply for AQSIQ license, the foreign applicants must demonstrate that they have sufficient quality control and environmental control procedures to ensure their products are contamination free, and impose little or low risk to China's environment and the health of general public.

To demonstrate their qualification, the foreign applicant, or their appointed agent/consultant are required to submit seventeen different documents, such as business registration, quality control/environmental control procedures, quality certificates, statements made to Chinese government, etc. A complete list of these 17 documents is listed below.

The government agency's review of the submission is strict and may take a couple of months. In year 2005 and 2006, only approximately 30% of applicants globally were granted the license. The Chinese government agency warns companies of consultants who claim "guaranteed success", because the government reviewers never makes any decision or promise before all the documents are reviewed and discussed.

AQSIQ Agency Reviewer's Guidance:

The company is legal operated in the country or region where its business is registered.
The company has permanent office or processing facility and its business is in considerable scale.

The company is familiar with laws and regulations concerning environmental protection policies and standards of China, it also has necessary equipments and capability in its quality control.

The company has quality assurance or environmental administration systems, such as ISO 9001 or 14001 or RIOS certifications, among others.

The company has relatively stable supply sources over which it monitors environmental quality control measures;

The company has no major safety, hygienic and environmental breakdowns in the past three years.

If any of the following situations happen, the registration application will be denied:

1) the submitted materials do not comply with aforementioned requirements;

2) the submitted materials are false or falsified;

3) the applicant has the record of exporting waste materials into China within the last three years that did not conform to the environmental protection control standards;

4) the imported waste contains hazardous or forbidden materials, or are found out as fraud and the supplier is responsible;

5) the imported waste materials are required to be returned due to disqualify the environmental inspection, and the supplier causes severe impacts because of indolent return;

6) the supplier tried to abandon disqualified cargos;

7) the supplier attempted to use different harbour for previously unqualified cargos;

8) the pre-shipment inspection certificate is falsified or fake;

9) the import scale is too small to guarantee the quality of cargos;

10) other situations do not conform to requirements announced by AQSIQ.