Final Standardization Law Passes China’s Legislature

On November 4, the National People's Congress (NPC) approved and released the Standardization Law. Having gone through three comment soliciting periods, the final version is not much different from the previous draft. The original Standardization Law was released in 1988. The Law is also the most significant part of the State Council's Plan for Deepening Reform in Standardization Work. The revised law will go into effect on January 1, 2018, and marks the first stage of China’s standardization reform.
 
Key concerns regarding the revised law included public disclosure requirements for enterprises, ambiguity on how social organization standards can be escalated to be national or industry standards, preference for indigenous innovations in social organization standards, experts groups’ ability to draft mandatory and recommended standards, and the lack of dispute resolution and appeals process at each level of standardization.