The General Office of the National Health Commission ("NHC") has recently issued the Provisions on Provincial Sanitary Administrative Licenses for Products Involving Sanitary Safety of Drinking Water (the "Provisions"), immediately effective from the date of issuance.
According to the Provisions, main revisions are introduced as below. First, previous requirements for inspection agencies' qualifications are cancelled, and it is clearly stated that an applicant may either conduct an inspection by itself in accordance with national sanitary standards and sanitary specifications, or entrust a relevant agency to carry out the inspection. Second, previous provisions concerning the sanitary regulator's collection and seal-up of samples for inspection use are removed. Third, it is clearly provided that an applicant shall bear legal liability for and make a commitment to the truthfulness and compliance of its self-inspections, and these self-inspections will be subject to credit regulation. Fourth, provisions in respect of the examination of the production capacity are consolidated, and relevant work is put off until after a license application has been accepted. Fifth, the time frame needed for the examination and approval is shortened by compressing the previous 60-day time limit for the organization of technical reviews following the acceptance of a license application to 30 days now, and the previous 10-day time limit for the examination on the production site to five days now, and by requiring decision making within 20 days after the acceptance of a license application, rather than after the conclusions of technical reviews. And sixth, documents requested in the examination and approval stage are streamlined.