3.1 Five constituent elements of the pap of China’s policy of waste importation

Objectives

The objectives of the PAP of China’s policy in importing solid waste is to ensure the environment surrounding the production, storage, transit and use of solid waste to meet the environmental quality standards which is issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, including the ambient air quality standards (GB 3095-1996), quality standards for soil (GB 15618-1995), quality standards for underground water (GB/T 14848-9).¹⁷

Evaluative elements

In the PAP, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China will build up monitoring systems for the environment and develop monitoring methods¹⁸, such as Technic Route for Monitoring the Environment¹⁹, Technical specifications on sampling and sample preparation from industry solid waste ( HJT 20-1998）²⁰.

Operational elements

The operational elements mainly cover²¹:

1. The Ministry of Environmental Protection issued a catalogue of prohibited imported solid waste, putting the bans on import of prohibited solid waste.

2. If overseas suppliers want to export solid waste to China, they must obtain the registration certificate issued by department of quality supervision, inspection, and quarantine of the State Council.

3. If overseas suppliers want to export solid waste to China, pre-shipment inspection agency designated by the quality inspection and quarantine department of the State Council shall carry out pre-shipment inspection on imported solid waste and issue a certificate for pre-shipment inspection if it is qualified.

4. If domestic consignees want to import solid waste from abroad, they must obtain the registration certificate issued by the department of quality supervision, inspection, and quarantine of the State Council.

5. Upon arrival of the imported solid waste, the entry and exit inspection and quarantine agency shall issue the Customs Clearance Form of Entry of Goods after inspection and quarantine.

6. Customs shall inspect imported solid waste and fulfill the customs procedures.

7. If the enterprises want to use imported solid waste, they must obtain relevant licenses for import of solid waste as raw materials from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

8. The Competent department of environmental protection administration of province, autonomous region or municipality shall organize site inspection and supervisory monitoring on the enterprises that use imported solid waste.

In conclusions, the operational elements of this policy are based on bans, obligations, and the allocation of various rights that may be the object of sanctions in the case of failure to respect them. Therefore, the operational elements of this PAP are in a regulatory mode.

Besides, the operational elements are formulated in PAP in a very concrete way. It points very clearly the target groups and divides the solid waste in three categories: solid waste prohibited for import, solid waste restricted for import, and solid waste automatically licensed for import.

Political-administrative arrangements and resources

In this policy, the competencies are attributed to existing services, that is, departments of environmental protection administration at national and local level; departments of commerce administration at national and local level; departments of economic comprehensive macro-economic control at national and local level; departments of customs at national and local level; departments of quality supervision, inspection and quarantine at national and local level. The granting of resources (finance, personnel and others) is then globally decided when the budgets of the services concerned are decided.

Procedural elements

The procedural elements of the PAP of the policy stipulates the procedures among the competent authorities, such as the environmental department for licensing, departments of customs for inspections, departments of quality supervision for monitoring. Also, it stipulates the procedures for cooperation between different political-administrative actors, such as the procedure for sharing information among different departments.

It also stipulates the procedures between departments of different levels. Such as the application should be first handed over to local level, than national level.

Furthermore, it also includes the procedure of how target group to lodge a complaint in the sanctions.

T he procedures of registration for domestic consignees

Source: http://www.aqsiq.gov.cn/zwgk/jlgg/zjgg/2009/200909/t20090929_127697.htm