15/07/2020

The mandatory national standard GB 2626-2019 Respiratory protection — Non-powered air-purifying particle respirator, published on 31 December 2019, initially allowed a transition period of six months. However, SAC has recently decided to extend the transition period until 1 July 2021, mainly for the purpose of providing more effective support to COVID-19 prevention and control measures, and to ensure the stable supply of face masks. In line with the Administrative Measures for Mandatory National Standards, during the extended transition period, enterprises can follow either the previous GB 2626-2006 or the new GB 2626-2019 at their own will, though qualified enterprises are encouraged to start organising their production according to the latter.

 

China has long been criticised for not allowing transition periods to be sufficiently long to ensure the proper implementation of technical regulations, standards and certification. Cases like GB 2626 above for face masks, and CCC for explosion-proof electric apparatus, show that unreasonable transition periods are not only objectively hard to execute – thus creating a huge burden for enterprises – but also negatively affect emergency response. Therefore, we recommend that relevant agencies solicit public opinions in a more comprehensive manner and design reasonable transition period when developing such regulations, standards, or certification schemes, in order to ensure that they are science-based and reasonably.