China CIQ Saga Continues
30 08 2007The China CIQ saga continues and we still have yet to come to the official start date of September 1. I am hearing that the CIQ is already implementing some restrictions on exports as well as imports and some US companies products being blacklisted or banned. They currently have punished some factories for exporting product that was rejected by the importing country for pesticide, or microbiology, or other rejections such as foreign material. Initially, after the first violation they will not allow the factory to export for 3 weeks (or other specified time) and ask for corrective action and it is not clear what will happen if corrective action can not be accomplished in the time frame given by the CIQ. In addition to the factory, they will also restrict all the growing fields vegetables (which had CIQ registration) from being exported. It is not clear as to how long the fields would be restricted and what they would have to do to be re-registered by the CIQ.
Another side of the problem is that because of the pressure from all the foreign countries on quality issues the China government is setting up new regulations daily which is driving all the CIQ staff crazy. Factories maybe shut down for months if the product is rejected by any foreign country, but it might be restricted from exporting only to that country while still being able to export to other countries. Everything is still unclear and it may change from region to region as the CIQ implement their own rules. Some of the CIQ’s staff are trying to make it very difficult for exporting factories because if they have a rejection it not only hurts the factory but also the CIQ staff will be punished with no chance of promotion. Hence the CIQ would prefer not to have any exports to eliminate their own risk of being punished.
With each province and local CIQ implementing their own regulations, it reminds me very much of a book I just read, “Will The Boat Sink The Water? The Life Of China’s Peasants” by Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao. The book tells several stories about the peasants problmes with the local government and how the local and provincial government dictated their own tax laws that were contrary to the central China government. It relates sevearl stories and very interesting to read and get a better handle of the inner workings. The book was originally published in China but later banned. Is their a correlation?
Technorati Tags: Noon International, China CIQ, CIQ, pesticide, imports, exports
