AQSIQ Extends Renewal Deadline

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), a Brussels-based international recycling association, has announced that the Chinese General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has agreed to extend its renewal application deadline by 90 days. The decision follows an official letter that the BIR sent to AQSIQ on Dec. 3, 2010.

In the letter, BIR pointed out the importance of giving more time for renewal applications; the initial deadline was at the end of 2010.

“We are very concerned that because of the high number of (re)applicants, many well-established companies, which have already been officially accepted as overseas suppliers for the last three years or more, will not get their 2011-2013 licenses renewed,” wrote Francis Veys, BIR’s director general in the letter.

“We are also concerned”, he added, “that many AQSIQ registered companies who are still waiting for their renewed license and who have in the meantime already shipped materials/recyclables to China, could meet serious difficulties if they do not have an AQSIQ license at the time the materials arrive in China”.

BIR added that the AQSIQ has informed the association that it will soon publish a list of the first 500 approved companies.