The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") has recently issued the Circular on Matters Concerning the Implementation of the Decision of the State Council on Adjusting the Catalog of Industrial Products Administered by Production Licenses and Strengthening In-process and Ex-post Regulation (the "Circular").
The Circular contain provisions in four parts which respectively deal with resolutely implementing the adjustments made to the catalog of industrial products administered by production licenses, ramping up efforts to have enterprises fulfill their primary responsibilities, strengthening in-process and ex-post regulation of products no longer administered by production license, and optimizing regulation of products still administered by production license. Among others, the Circular states that the production-license-based administration will be immediately lifted for certain products, and applications for production licenses for 13 categories of products, such as "bearing steel" will no longer be accepted, examined and approved; two categories of products are combined together for the administration purpose; efforts will be made to ensure a smooth transition to compulsory product certification for brake pads. Meanwhile, the Circular calls for strictly examining whether the record-filing or approval documents, and other industry policy documents, submitted by enterprises for their investment projects, satisfy the requirements set out in the implementing rules or the SAMR's documents, adding that applications filed by enterprises not meeting the requirements will be dismissed without exception.