Update: China approves first list of preshipment inspection agencies

China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) published its first approved preshipment inspection agencies (PSIA) for solid waste imported as raw materials, according to a Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, report. The initial list includes 21 approved agencies. 

According to BIR, the 21 approved agencies are located in Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the Netherlands, Canada, Kazakhstan, Macau, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Hong Kong and Vietnam. There have not been PSIAs approved for Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Hungary, India, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka or Taiwan.

BIR reports that it expects China will publish additional lists of approved PSIAs in the future.

In a list published Nov. 7, Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) says offices in several cities or countries are “noticeably absent” from the roster, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Russia, Mongolia and former branch offices in Spain and Hungary.

The association remarks, “Although any company may apply to be an approved PSIA, only two of the 21 approved PSIAs [currently] are not CCIC satellite offices.” The China Certification and Inspection Group (CCIC) is a company established in cooperation with China’s government to inspect China-bound shipments for quality control and anti-smuggling purposes.

ISRI says it has not secured any additional detail from the GACC on what the smaller list might mean. The association states, “It is our assumption that scrap exporters based in countries without a PSIA will have to approach the closest office of jurisdiction. We know for certain that the CCIC office in Mexico City has closed, forcing Mexican recyclers to obtain preshipment services from CCIC North America’s offices in the United States.”

Recyclers based in Mexico and other parts of Latin America reported a lack of access to CCIC inspection services at a committee meeting at a Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) convention in May 2018 in Barcelona.

Editor's Note: This article was originally posted Nov. 19 and was updated with the information from BIR on Nov. 26.