Chart: Cai Huawei

Quietly, the pace of national consumption upgrade has accelerated, and people pay more and more attention to quality, safety and details in their daily consumption. In contrast, the process of upgrading domestic consumer goods has lagged behind, and some consumers have joined the "overseas shopping tribe".

Standards are the baseline of quality. Some people say that the slow upgrading of consumer product production is all due to standards, because Chinese standards are lower than international standards. Are Chinese consumer product standards really far behind those of developed countries? Where is our gap?

The overall level of Chinese standards is not low

Comparing 3,816 consumer product safety technical indicators in China and abroad, 3,000 of them are consistent with international and foreign requirements

"Masks should be selected according to European EN149 and American NIOSH standards, water purifiers should be purchased with American NSF certification, and air purifiers should be selected with American CADR certification..." Beijing expectant mother Ms. Feng has her own set of shopping criteria, and knows all the major standards of major daily necessities like the back of her hand. What she trusts most is the EU standards. As for Chinese standards, Ms. Feng said that she feels that Chinese standards are too loose and not strict enough in some aspects, "I am still a little worried."

What is the real level of Chinese standards?

80%--The conversion rate of international standards (that is, the proportion of international standards adopted by Chinese standards such as national standards and industry standards) basically exceeds 80%. The standards formulated by the International Organization for Standardization are the basis of international trade and the ticket for products to participate in international competition. At present, China's conversion rates in major consumer product industries such as household appliances, lighting appliances, textiles, clothing, furniture, toys, footwear products, paper products, and detergents have all exceeded 80%, and some industries are even higher.

79%--The consistency of safety technical indicators reached 79%. In 2014, the National Standards Committee launched the comparison of Chinese and foreign standards for consumer product safety. Among the 3,816 indicators in the first batch of 12 industries compared, about 3,000 technical indicators were able to maintain consistency with international technical regulations and standards, accounting for 79%.

Specifically, 2,299 items are stricter than international standards, 728 items are consistent with international standards, 529 items are more lenient than international standards, and 260 items are different from international standards. 71% of the indicators are stricter than or consistent with the relevant EU directives and coordinated standards; 74% of the indicators are stricter than or consistent with the relevant laws, regulations and standards of the United States; 90% of the indicators are stricter than or consistent with the relevant laws, regulations and standards of Japan and Canada.

"The comparison results show that the overall level of China's consumer product safety standards is not lower than that of foreign countries." Dai Hong, director of the Second Department of Industrial Standards of the National Standards Committee, said that in terms of the requirements for anti-electric walls of water storage electric water heaters, safety requirements for liquid heaters such as electric pressure cookers and soymilk machines, and hygiene requirements for paper products, Chinese standards are even stricter than international standards.

The level of Chinese standards can also be seen from the depth of China's participation in the revision and formulation of international standards.

Tian Shihong, director of the National Standards Committee, introduced that currently in the fields of textiles and clothing, household appliances, fireworks and firecrackers, shoemaking, watches and clocks, China has assumed the work of chairman, vice chairman or secretariat and joint secretariat of 10 technical organizations under the two major international organizations, the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

"In these 10 organizations, we have substantially participated in or even taken the lead in the formulation of international standards." Tian Shihong said that in emerging technology fields such as home service robots and hot safety fields such as toys, China is also promoting the development of relevant international standards.

The gap is in the field of chemical safety

Foreign standards start from safety factors and strive to maximize the coverage. Chinese standards have long been limited to the industry

Why do some consumers have the impression that "foreign standards are stricter"?

"The gap between Chinese and foreign standards is mainly reflected in chemical safety, and China lags behind a lot, which is precisely the area that consumers are very concerned about." Dai Hong said.

Mr. Gao and his wife are currently selecting child safety seats for their soon-to-be-born baby. The couple prefers foreign brands. "In addition to physical safety, I am more concerned about whether the plastics, fabrics and other raw materials of the seats contain toxic substances." Mr. Gao said that the damage caused by chemical substances is invisible and intangible but harmful, and special attention needs to be paid.

In June this year, the European Chemicals Agency released the 15th batch of SVHC lists (list of substances of high concern). So far, the EU REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals) has released a total of 169 chemical substances. According to the REACH Regulation, if an article contains any substance on the SVHC candidate list and the content of the substance exceeds 0.1%, there is an obligation to inform consumers.

Taking child safety seats as an example, the Chinese national standard only sets limit requirements for 8 migratable elements (antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and selenium), while Europe has established cross-industry chemical control standards. It can be said that the chemical hazard indicators involved in China's consumer product standards are not only few but also lack common requirements for the entire industry chain. "Although the standards have set limit requirements for some chemical substances, due to the lack of basic research and injury cases, they can only passively follow the changes in regulations in developed countries and regions." Dai Hong said that China's standards only set chemical safety requirements for product fields, and lack common requirements similar to foreign laws and regulations covering cross-fields and the entire industry chain.

At its root, the gap comes from the difference in standardization concepts between China and developed countries in Europe and the United States.

On the one hand, developed countries in Europe and the United States focus on starting from safety factors, formulating top-level general regulations across industries, and emphasizing source control. For example, the EU REACH regulations and the ROHS directive are all based on safety factors, involving the upstream and downstream industrial chains and related products, and strive to maximize the coverage of safety requirements.

"For a long time, China has formulated standards more to serve industry management, with products as the clue, and limited to formulating safety standards within the industry. Although the safety requirements around a specific product are relatively comprehensive and systematic, the scope of application of the standards is narrow, which is prone to cross-repetition of standards and blank areas that are not covered by the standards." Dai Hong said.

On the other hand, developed countries in Europe and the United States attach importance to group standards and enterprise standards. The American NIOSH mask standard that consumers admire is a group standard. Before the standardization reform plan was introduced last year, industry standards did not have legal status in China. Even enterprise standards formulated by enterprises themselves and used internally must be filed with government departments or even reviewed and filed.

"The national standard is actually just an entry threshold. In order to adapt to market competition, the level of enterprise standards that pursue better levels is often higher." Dai Hong said.

Don't let the standards have shortcomings

In 2020, the consistency between consumer products in key areas and international standards will reach more than 95%

With consumption upgrades, standards must catch up. The "Consumer Product Standards and Quality Improvement Plan (2016-2020)" recently released clearly stated that by 2020, the overall quality of consumer products will be significantly improved, and the consistency between consumer products in key areas and international standards will reach more than 95%.

"Standards are changing dynamically, and the comparison work will be accelerated." The relevant person in charge of the National Standards Committee said that the first batch of comparisons of Chinese and foreign consumer product safety technical standards focused on 12 areas, including children's products (toys, children's shoes, children's clothing, and children's cars), clothing and textiles, household appliances, jewelry, furniture, paper products, plugs, and coatings. According to the "Promotion Plan", the comparison work will gradually become normalized. On the one hand, a consumer product standard comparison and reporting system should be established, and on the other hand, the establishment of Chinese and foreign standard comparison data resources should be strengthened. In addition to the comparison of key technical indicators, the comparison work will also be extended to the comparison and verification of test methods.

The speed of transformation of important international standards will be accelerated. "We will explore experience and set benchmarks by building a number of standardized demonstration areas for consumer products, in order to promote the faster integration of Chinese consumer product standards with international standards and foreign advanced standards, and meet everyone's demand for higher quality consumer products." Tian Shihong said.

The structural optimization of standards is also being promoted simultaneously. The reporter learned that the standardization reform plan issued last year gave group standards a legal identity. In the future, China will encourage social organizations and industrial technology alliances such as societies, associations, federations, etc. with corresponding capabilities to coordinate relevant market players to jointly formulate standards that meet market and innovation needs for voluntary market selection. In addition, there is no administrative license for group standards, which are independently formulated and issued by social organizations and industrial technology alliances.

The China Toy and Baby Products Association issued a group standard for child safety seats in June this year. It is stricter than the national standard in three aspects and adds limit requirements for chemical elements such as pH value, formaldehyde, phthalates, and flame retardants. What is more valuable is that this group standard has been recognized by 15 companies, who issued statements to voluntarily implement this standard.

In terms of enterprise standards, according to the reform plan, the government's filing management of enterprise product standards will be gradually abolished, and a self-declaration disclosure and supervision system for enterprise product and service standards will be implemented. The self-declaration disclosure of enterprise standards will be deemed to have completed filing. "I hope that through these measures, we can increase the effective supply of standards and build a more mature Chinese standard system," said Tian Shihong.

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