Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued the Administrative Measures for the Announcement on the Industrial Robot Industry Standards (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") for public comments before May 10, 2017.
The Draft for Comment contains provisions in several aspects, such as the application and verification, review and announcement, and application for changes and announcement of such changes, and applies to both manufacturers producing main bodies of industrial robots and enterprises that apply industrial robots in an integrated manner within the territory of China. The Draft for Comment states that an enterprise applicant is required to fill out the Application for the Announcement of Conditions for the Industrial Robot Industry Standards, elaborate on its satisfaction of certain requirements, such as the integrated conditions, enterprise scale, quality requirements, capacity in research, development and innovation, and social responsibility, as stipulated in the Conditions for the Industrial Robot Industry Standards, and provide supporting materials. Furthermore, the Draft for Comment makes it clear that where an enterprise listed in an announcement falls under any of five circumstances, such as "where an accident out of negligence occurs, causing adverse social impacts", it shall be ordered to make a rectification within a prescribed period; its qualification for announcement will be cancelled if it refuses to do so or the rectification it has made fails to meet requirements.