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Standardize and Improve State Public Health and Plant Hygiene Control System
2003-09-01
Li Zhijun
To ensure the health of the people and the safety of their lives, protect the safety of animals and plants, tackle the outbreak of public health incident, it is necessary to standardize and improve China’s public health and plant hygiene control system. Meanwhile, China, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WT0), must pay attention to follow the principles and requirements laid down in WTO’s "Implementation of the Agreement of Public Health and Plant Hygiene Measures".
I. Necessity and Significance to Standardize and Improve State Public Health and Plant Hygiene Control System
The measures for public health and plant hygiene mean the measures adopted by the state to protect lives or health of human beings, animals and plants to realize the following objectives: protect people’s lives from being harmed by additives in food and beverage, pollutants, toxin and animal and plant diseases and insect pests from outside, protect animal lives from being harmed by additives in fodder, pollutants, toxin and plant diseases and insect pests from outside, and protect plant lives from being harmed by diseases and insect pests from outside.
Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China has established an improved public health and plant hygiene protection system including technical regulations, rules, standard authentication, examination and quarantine. In view of the general situation, there are still some problems and inadequacy. The occurrence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has exposed China’s imperfect mechanism in handling major and outbreak of incidents in public health, the lack of unified leadership, plugged information channels and insufficient emergency preparation in the primary stage of the epidemics in particular.
1. Insensitive information, backward disease control system, lack of understanding of international standards, technical regulations and rules and foreign epidemics landed our work in a passive position.
2.Managerial system is not perfect. At present, China has not yet formed a unified and coordinated managerial system. All departments do things in their own way and thus could hardly form a joint force and often bungle the chance for timely treatment. Some practices could neither protect the health and safety of people, animals and plants nor offer the latest foreign information to the public, nor timely provide China’s relevant regulations and rules for foreign countries. As a result, these practices are often blamed by foreign counterparts as lacking "transparent principle" and "non-discrimination principle", also landing our work in a passive position.
3.Technical regulations and rules are not perfect and the examination and quarantine technological standards lag behind. China has not yet formed the coordinated and unified technological regulations and rules for different sectors and regions. The prescription of standards is poor, the period for standard revision and reexamination is too long, some industries or products have no standards of their own, and the standard research of new and high-tech industries is almost blank.
4. There is certain gap in terms of examination and quarantine between China and economically developed countries. Examination and quarantine departments and enterprises lack testing and appraising methods, standard samples and technology to some degree. The laboratory testing capacity is deficient.
In short, the present public health and plant hygiene measures cannot meet the needs of economic growth or protect health and safety of people, animal and plants. It is necessary to standardize and improve China’s state public health and plant hygiene control system.
II. Basic Principle of "Implementation of the Agreement of Public Health and Plant Hygiene Measures"
1. Indiscriminately implement measures of public health and plant hygiene. In the implementation of the measures of public health and plant hygiene, members should follow the principle of indiscrimination, which means no arbitrary or irrational discrimination should take place among members with the same or similar situation including the given member and other members, and the national treatment in products should be given to other members in the aspect of control, examination and approval procedure.
2. Base on science to implement measures of public health and plant hygiene. Certain measures of public health and plant hygiene adopted under the situation of lack of scientific basis should be temporary and should undergo scientific assessment within rational period.
3. Base on international standards to formulate measures of public health andplant hygiene.If a member carries out or maintains the measures of public health and plant hygiene stricter than the international standards, they must be provided with scientific basis, or accord with the "appropriate public health and plant hygiene protection standards" in accordance with the analysis of harmful biological risks. These measures cannot conflict the "Implementation of the Agreement of Public Health and Plant Hygiene Measures" and cannot cause unnecessary obstacles for international trade.
4. Requirement of measures of public health and plant hygiene should be equal to exporters. If the measures of public health and plant hygiene adopted by an exporter objectively meet the proper protection standards of public health and plant hygiene of an importer, the importer should accept these measures and allow the import of products even if the measures are not the same as that of the importer or are different from other members engaged in trading the same products.
5. Base on the analysis of biological risks to decide suitable protection standards. All members must base on the analysis of biological risks when they formulate measures of public health and plant hygiene.
6. Accept the concept of "non-epidemic area of plant diseases and insect pests" and "area with low percentage of plant diseases and insect pests". If the exporter claims all or part of his tariff territory are non-epidemic area of plant diseases and insect pests and area with low percentage of plant diseases and insect pests, he has to provide necessary evidence for the importer. Meanwhile, the exporter should offer the importer with a rational opportunity of examination and other relevant procedures at the request of the importer.
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