The China Food and Drug Administration ("CFDA") has recently issued the Provisions on Legislative Procedures (Revised Draft) (the "Revised Draft") for public consultation by December 18, 2017.
The Revised Draft is comprised of the general provisions, filing a legislation project, drawing up the legislation, examination, deliberation and publication, record-filing and interpretations, evaluation, sorting-out and compilation, examination of normative documents, etc. The Revised Draft stipulates that contents of the legislation shall be detailed but not verbose, logically tight and operable, with their articles clear and concrete, description explicit and accurate, and their wording standardized and concise. According to the Revised Draft, where legislation drafts contain any major adjustments to the regulatory systems and mechanisms for foods and drugs or regulatory measures in this regard, or may have significant impacts on citizens' immediate interests or the food or drug industry, departments or bureaus responsible for drawing up the legislation shall organize the evaluation of social risks, economic risks and other risks, and form the evaluation reports which will be then used as the basis for decisions on the legislation. Furthermore, it is made clear in the Revised Draft that rules shall, in general, take effect 30 days after they have been published; however, in case potential obstacles will arise to the implementation thereof if they don't enter into force at once, they could become effective immediately from the issue date.