On Wednesday a number of new laws and regulations come into
effect in China governing farm product safety, oceanic environment
protection, broadcast commercials and foreign exchange
management.
China will ban the sale of farm products that fail to meet
safety standards from November 1 when the country's first law on
their safety comes into effect.
The law will establish a farm product safety supervision and
management system as well as a farm product source registration
system to ensure safety of food. A farm product safety risk
analysis, appraisal and identification systems for high quality,
pesticide-free farm products will also be set up.
To protect the oceanic environment from construction pollution
the State Council issued a regulation which will take effect from
November 1. It's aimed at providing more effective management of
new, upgraded and extended projects along the coastline which
exploit, utilize, protect and restore marine resources.
The location of projects like power plants, seabed tunnels,
seafood breeding areas and sightseeing spots cannot affect the
environment of the sea area or adjacent waters, according to the
regulation.
Project managers must submit environment assessment reports to
sea administration departments before construction starts. Approval
can only be given after collecting opinions from maritime and
fishing departments and public hearings would held if necessary,
the regulation says.
Proposals for sea enclosures and infill projects must undergo
public hearings before approval is given. Chinese newspapers and
magazines will be prohibited from accepting misleading advertising
according to a newly promulgated circular effective from November
1.
Jointly issued by the State Press and Publication Administration
and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the
circular prohibits publications from accepting advertising which
promotes unproven medical products. Many of the ads promote male
potency products, breast enlargement or magical cure-alls.
According to the administrations the advertisements that are
obscene or contain superstitious content and those teaching
gambling tricks will also be strictly prohibited.
In another regulation, the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange, China's foreign exchange regulator, will step up its
supervision of trade-related foreign exchange (forex) dealings from
November 1.
It'll classify enterprises in different categories according to
their track record in forex transactions. It will strictly check
forex sales by firms that have previously been involved in
suspected forex speculation through disguising their trade
activities.
Companies for which the discrepancy between actual export
earnings and contracted sales was more than 10 percent will be
classified as needing special supervision and have to submit
relevant certificates for foreign exchange transactions.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)