• SPAN

Chinese Government Restructure Plan

As SPAN went to press, ISRI learned that China’s State Council submitted a government restructuring plan to the Party’s 13th National Congress (parliamentary meeting).
  • …of particular note, the plan proposed to abolish the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), the entity responsible for the scrap import regulations
  • …in its place, the Ministry of Ecological Environment (MEE) will be created as a “super ministry,”
    • …China watchers believe that the MEE could be granted extraordinary powers over environmental management
    • …this would certainly comport with what ISRI has come to understand about the Chinese Government’s laser focus on combatting pollution.

       

  • The restructure plan proposes to merge the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) into a newly created

….National Market Supervision Administration, another “super ministry” likely to be given the power to better coordinate enforcement of export/import laws. 

  • The full restructuring plan is a move toward greater centralization and increased party control
    • …combine this with the Party Congress vote to eliminate the two-term restriction on Chinese leaders;
    • …the result empowers President Xi Jinping relatively unfettered control of the future trajectory of his nation’s economy.
      • …in other words, for the recycling industry, 2017 pronouncements to better manage waste, including restrictions on scrap imports and increasing financial resources toward enhancing domestic recycling, are the new reality of the Chinese market. The regulations, we believe, are here to stay.

         

  • ISRI had worked hard in the last year to redevelop relationships that, at minimum, offered insights into how the new scrap import regulations would be implemented.
    • as the Chinese government restructures:
      • …officials will unlikely be open to meetings with the private sector
      • …some officials are likely to be reassigned creating uncertainty about our continued access into the Chinese Government
      • §nevertheless, ISRI staff plans to be in China the week after Convention for outreach at the State and local level where these regulations are being implemented.

Go Deeper: Please contact Adina Renee Adler at (202) 662-8514, with any questions.

SPAN Main

Have Questions?