China to Tighten Control on Cross-border E-Commerce

According to ChemLinked sources, Hangzhou (the hometown of Alibaba) CIQ held a conference yesterday to inform relevant stakeholders involved in Crossborder E-commerce (CBEC) of the pending implementation of a new policy to conduct random inspection of all commodities traded through CBEC platforms, especially those deemed as high risk products (like food, cosmetics).

China's Cross-border E-commerce

The new update indicates local governments’ intention to more strictly regulate CBEC. In addition, it’s been under discussion by the government that CBEC commodities should be subjected to the same tough importation and registration requirements as normal imported products (see CL food news on 30 Jun 2015). If such a policy was passed the vast majority of products traded on CBEC could not be sold any longer.

Currently goods traded through CBEC enjoy a much more relaxed regulatory policy than goods entering China through traditional importation channels. Product registration (including health food and cosmetics), Chinese labels, strict CIQ inspection and quarantine, testing etc. can all be avoided when selling through CBEC. Therefore, a large number of unregistered overseas functional foods, cosmetic products, and infant formula without any Chinese labels are available on various CBEC websites. However, according to people from Hangzhou’s CBEC park, there is no doubt that China must tighten control on CBEC meaning many of its previous advantages will be cease to be a factor.