The Second Review of the Draft Revision of the Standardization Law Stipulates the Responsibilities of These Social Organizations in Formulating Standards

[Introduction] The state encourages academic societies, associations, chambers of commerce, federations, industry technology alliances, and other social organizations to coordinate with relevant market entities to jointly formulate group standards that meet market and innovation needs. These standards are to be adopted by the members of the organization or made available for voluntary adoption by the public according to the organization's regulations.

On August 28, the second draft of the revised Standardization Law was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation. The second draft revised some content of high concern, responding to public concerns. Prior to this, the 27th meeting of the Standing Committee conducted the first review of the draft revision of the Standardization Law. This second draft further revised the main issues of the draft.

The first draft stipulated that standards include mandatory standards, recommended standards, group standards, and enterprise standards. In response, some members of the Standing Committee, local governments, departments, and enterprises pointed out that the classification of standards was inconsistent and the relationships between standards were unclear, suggesting further clarification. Therefore, the second draft revised it to: standards include national standards, industry standards, local standards, group standards, and enterprise standards. National standards are divided into mandatory standards and recommended standards; industry standards and local standards are recommended standards.

Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the draft revision stipulates the regulations for social organizations to formulate group standards. Some local governments, departments, enterprises, and experts have suggested that the role of enterprises and industry organizations should be fully utilized, supporting industry associations, chambers of commerce, and industry technology alliances in formulating group standards to increase the supply of standards, and providing necessary regulations for the formulation of group standards. After research, the Legislative Affairs Commission recommends revising Article 13, Paragraph 1 of the draft revision to read: The State encourages academic societies, associations, chambers of commerce, federations, industry technology alliances, and other social organizations to coordinate with relevant market entities to jointly formulate group standards that meet market and innovation needs, which shall be adopted by the members of the organization or made available for voluntary adoption by the public in accordance with the organization's regulations.

The draft revision also adds a clause stipulating the principles and procedural requirements for formulating group standards.

Furthermore, Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the draft revision adds a provision: Enterprises may jointly formulate enterprise standards with other enterprises.

Article 22 of the draft revision stipulates that the State implements a system of self-declaration and public disclosure of enterprise product and service standards. Enterprises shall disclose their enterprise standards through the enterprise standard information public service platform, and legal responsibilities are stipulated for failure to disclose enterprise standards on the platform. Some local governments, departments, enterprises, and experts have argued that requiring all enterprises to publicly disclose their enterprise standards through a unified platform is unnecessary and inconsistent with the spirit of the State Council's "Deepening Standardization Work Reform Plan" regarding the cancellation of enterprise standard filing. Some opinions suggest that group standards should also implement a self-declaration and public disclosure system. After review, the Legislative Affairs Commission recommends revising the above provisions in the draft amendment to: The state implements a self-declaration and public disclosure system for group standards and enterprise standards, and encourages group standards and enterprise standards to be publicly disclosed through the public service platform for standards information.