The State Administration for Market Regulation ("SAMR") has recently issued the Circular on Fully Implementing the Measurement Assurance Capacity Self-declaration System Among Producers of Quantitatively Packed Commodities (the "Circular").
The Circular clearly states that, the current management mode featuring the combination of "enterprises' voluntary applications, issue of certificates by the government after examination, and market supervision", will be superseded by the mode integrating "enterprises' self-declaration, follow-up regulation of the government, and market supervision", with a view to improving subject responsibilities of enterprises and tightening the in-process and ex-post regulation. The Circular provides that, relevant enterprises may, on a voluntary basis, perform the self-assessment pursuant to the Specification on the Assessment of Measurement Assurance Capacity of Producers of Quantitatively Packed Commodities (the "Specification"). Where an enterprise claims that it meets requirements set out in the Specification, upon the self-assessment, it shall make a self-declaration on the website designated by the local provincial-level market regulator to publicly pledge that it satisfies requirements provided by the Specification and that the net weight or content of quantitatively packed commodities it produces complies with provisions of the Measures for Supervision and Administration of the Measurement of Quantitatively Packed Commodities. After it has made such self-declaration, it may attach the nationally unified qualification mark for measurement assurance capacity, also known as the C Mark, to quantitatively packed products it makes. Market regulators will no longer conduct inspections of enterprises' capacity to assure the measurement, before their use of the C Mark.