16/08/2019
The General Administration of Market Supervision has revised the “Measures for the Administration of Local Standards” and published the new draft for comments. Deadline for submitting comments is August 31, 2019.
Administration of local standards:
Local standards are voluntary standards. Local standards can be developed to meet special technical requirements that need to be unified in local natural conditions, customs, social management and public services.
Administrative departments of standardization of the local people’s governments at and above the districted city level (hereinafter, administrative departments of standardization at and above the districted city level) shall administer the standardization work within their respective administrative regions in a unified manner, organize the development of local standards, and guide and coordinate relevant administrative departments in the development, organization and implementation of local standards.
When the administrative departments of standardization at and above the districted city level need to develop local standards, they shall submit the application to the administrative departments of standardization of the local people’s governments of the province, autonomous region or municipality (hereinafter, departments of standardization at the provincial level) to develop local standards within its own administrative region in accordance with the approved scope and requirements.
Departments of standardization at the provincial level can jointly develop local standards according to the needs of regional cooperation and development.
Development of local standards:
- How to initiate a standard development project:
- Organizations or individuals may submit recommendations on the initiation of projects of local standards to the administrative departments of standardization at or above the municipal level or relevant administrative departments.
- The relevant administrative departments of the local people’s governments at or above the municipal level shall, according to the actual needs of their own departments and industries, apply to the administrative departments of standardization at the same level for developing local standards.
- Initiation of standards development projects:
The departments of standardization at or above the municipal level are responsible for developing and releasing plans on initiation of projects of local standards. The name of the project, the administrative department in charge of the application, the project sponsor, and the time limit for completion shall be specified in the local standard project initiation plan.
The departments of standardization at or above the municipal level shall organize and carry out a demonstration on the initiation of projects of local standards, and call for comments when necessary.
The departments of standardization at or above the municipal level can establish a working mechanism for the quick initiation of projects of local standards to meet the urgent requirements for the development of standards.
- Drafting of the local standards:
The organization in charge of drafting the standards shall complete the drafting of local standards according to the plans on initiation of projects of local standards. They shall adhere to the following requirements in drafting local standards:
- Full investigation and research, extensive collection of data through comprehensive analysis, experiments and verification;
- Full coordination of the opinions from all relevant parties to achieve common interests;
- Technical requirements that can be tested, verified or evaluated shall not be lower than those listed in compulsory national standards, and shall coordinate and support relevant standards;
- The local standards shall be in line with the relevant requirements of international treaties and organizations in which China participates.
- Call for comments:
After finishing the draft, a call for comments shall be published to widely collect opinions, for a period of no less than 30 days.
- Submission for review:
The organization in charge of drafting the standards shall revise and improve the call for comments of local standards according to the comments they collect and form a draft of local standards for review. After the administrative departments responsible for the initiation of the project have approved the draft, it shall be submitted to the administrative department of standardization at the same level for review.
- Examination by the expert group:
Departments of standardization at or above the municipal level shall entrust standardization technical committees or set up expert groups to convene standards review conferences and form opinions of local experts for the review of local standards.
The composition of an expert group shall be broad. The expert group is usually composed of technical experts in related fields and representatives of relevant parties.
- Approval of standards
The project sponsors shall revise and improve the review of local standard according to the expert review opinions and form the submission for approval of local standards. The review shall then be submitted to the administration department of standardization at the same level after the approval of the administrative department in charge of the application for the initiation of project of local standards.
- Issuance of standards
Local standards shall be approved, numbered and issued by departments of standardization at or above the municipal level.
The issuance of local standards shall follow the announcement system.
- Numbering rules of standards
The numbering of local standards consists of three parts: local standard code, serial number and year number.
Example:
The code for standards of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities is composed of the letters “DB” and the first two digits of the administrative code of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
The code for standards of a districted city is composed of the letters “DB” and the first four digits of the administrative code of the city.
Example:
Code for voluntary local standards in Zhejiang Province: DB33/T XXX-XXXX
Code for voluntary local standards in Hangzhou: DB3301/T XXX-XXXX
- Filing of standards
After the issuance, local standards should be filed with the administrative department of standardization under the state council by the department of standardization at the provincial level within 60 days. The filing materials include the announcement of the issuance of local standards, standard texts and compilation instructions.
- Publicity of standards
Departments of standardization at or above the municipal level shall publish local standards catalogues and texts on their websites and public standards service platforms, which shall be available to the public free of charge.