The Ministry of Environmental Protection ("MEP") has recently issued the national standards for environmental protection titled as the Pollutant Discharge Standards for the Electronics Industry (Second Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to solicit comments from the entities concerned by April 15, 2018.
The Draft for Comment sets out limits on water and atmospheric pollutants discharged from enterprises in the electronics industry or their production facilities, monitoring and controlling requirements, as well as the provisions concerning the implementation of standards and supervision. The standards apply to enterprises in the electronics industry that provide six categories of products, including special electronic materials, electrical unit, printed circuit board (PCB), semiconductor device, display device and photoelectron component, and electron terminals product (including the coating process). In addition, the Draft for Comment notes that rules set out in these standards in respect of limits on water and atmospheric pollutants discharge shall take effect for new enterprises in the electronics sector from January 1, 2019 and for existing enterprises from January 1, 2021. Each region may bring forward the effective date of the standards upon approval of the local provincial people's government, depending on needs of local environmental protection and local economic and technical conditions.