Chinese system of conformity assessment

The Chinese system of conformity assessment has played an essential role in the history of Chinese law. When the conformity assessment carried out, the consumers were more confident in the products they produced, thereby protecting the health of consumers and encouraging them to buy more without hesitation.

The beginning of the conformity assessment can date back to 2006. In order to reduce technical barrier to trade and facilitate bilateral trade, the government established the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment which is more helpful to the trade especially the founding of well-functioning quality infrastructure (QI).

With the release of quality infrastructure, the relevant department can assess the products in a standard way, which decreases the complaint from the consumers. While standard implementation is not simple like what the government think. The first problem is the unified setting and compliance. Every industry has its own benchmark and they cannot imitate from each other according to the similar principle, therefore problems fall into the relevant department. Forexample, fish and cargo belong to diverse type of product. If the department examinee them in a similar way, the fish or cargo may have problems in the future in spite of the absurd standard.  What requires the government to do is that formulate system from person to person to make the system more perfect than before, which makes people believe the system.

The second problem is the implementation of the system. Since ancient times, promulgation of the system is not excellent itself, but the problem of Law enforcement agencies such as corruption, favoritism. In this way, the absolute execution is quite important, so the government may formulate relevant regulations to restrict the officials. If they cannot perform in terms of regulation, they will be severely punished. Such methods can constrain the officials better and reduce the risk of weak implementation. Since then, the credibility of QI has been guaranteed and people do not care about the standard because only the unfair system is likely to make people worried about it.

While the excessive reliance on regulation will have a negative on officials and pose a threat to the future development, so it is not a long-term policy. The main cause is that the stiff regulation is more likely to reduce the initiative of the officials, for they are afraid of making mistakes with stiff punishments. Hence for them, slacking is a choice for amounts of them that is counterproductive for the authority. In this way, the appropriate measure is adequate punishment and better system which gives partial freedom to the relevant department. In the future they are more possible to have an efficient execution for the sake of guaranteeing the system.

The third problem is the market surveillance. When the relevant department passes the products to the markets in terms of standard, related merchant dispose of the products at will and append additives after the process of inspection. Apart from the subsequent behavior, some amounts of businessmen dare to try illegal behavior escape from inspection that not only brings a huge trouble to the consumers but also themselves. 

The point is best illustrated with the example of Shanghai Husi Food Company. The company is the one who produce the food with raw expired materials delivering to the foreign fast food restaurants such as McDonald's KFC, etc., When the government reached the factory to examine the materials, the merchants have prepared in advance such as hiding the expired food in the refrigerator or adding the qualified sample label. Therefore whether the authority checked several times, they would never find the illegal food. Examples of such incidents are not only once, but only the Husi Company was exposed to the public owing to its huge range of harm violations.

For the sake of guaranteeing the system in order, the relevant department should not remind the company of checking the products in advance, or they will never know about what they are like actually in the factory. The relevant departments need to comply with this standard to perform the implementation of this system, not individual problems individually. What’s more, officials cannot examine only once, they are able to have a spot check irregularly, which can test the real strength of the enterprise and the safety of the food. From then on, the factory is careful of producing food because the health of people is the vital element for everyone.

The Chinese system of conformity assessment is not among core subject areas in law but deserve a place in the system, for it is beneficial to people. During the last decades, global economic integration has become the focus of public concern. The system will be a good way to reduce technical barrier to trade and facilitate bilateral trade, If the government can overcome the problems like implement and market surveillance.

By SJ Grand

http://daxueconsulting.com/market-potential-china/

http://www.standardsportal.org/usa_en/prc_standards_system/conformity_assessment/ca_used_in_china.aspx

http://www.cnas.org.cn/english/introduction/12/718683.shtml