China’s Yangtze River Protection Law is now in force
In order to strengthen the protection and restoration of the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Basin, the Yangtze River Protection Law entered into force on 1 March 2021. From this date, highly toxic chemicals and other hazardous chemicals that are currently not allowed to be transported on inland waterways under national standards, are also prohibited from being carried in the Yangtze River Basin. Companies that violate the law will have their illegal income confiscated and will receive a fine of between CNY 200,000 (approx. USD 30,600) and CNY 2 million (approx. USD 306,000).
The Shanghai Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) issued a Notice on 18 February 2021 that provides further details on the implementation of the new law. The Notice clarifies that the chemicals subject to the ban are those marked as ‘highly toxic’ in the remarks column of the Catalog of Hazardous Chemicals (2015 Edition, Chinese version ava