On April 24th, China Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology(MIIT) and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has jointly published the announcement No 1745 to restrict manufacturing and use of the herbicide parquat, which was widely used for weeds killing and suicide committing in China. And the Institute for the Control of Agrochemicals, Ministry of Agriculture (ICAMA) yesterday announced a notice to the parquat manufacturers and local authorities to detail the measures on the herbicide.

Local branches from the ICAMA shall stop receiving applications for field tests and registrations on the technical and aqua solution preparations (or mixed aqua solution) of the herbicide. Those enterprises to continue productions of the AS products shall apply alteration formalities for registration and labeling approvals from ICAMA by October 31th 2012 and present the materials including: original copy of the Registration Certification; Original sample of the label approved by MOA; the label they used in their production process; new sample of the label, documentary evidence for their source of the technical substance; composition of their preparations, emergency calls for full day first aid service, and qualification certifications from the service. Registration Certifications without alteration process and the un-validated labels will no longer be valid as of January 1^st 2013, which means the dis-renewed products are not allowed to be sold on the market. For products continue to be sold in China, ICAMA required the manufacturers to strikingly mark the precaution statement “The product is extremely dangerous and life-threatening if swallowed, and the suicides will experience painful and prolonged courses as no remedy for their unwise choice!” and the font size for the precaution shall be large than half of the trade name marked on the products. Also, ICAMA stressed that emergency call shall be printed on the labels and the emergency service should be capable of provide the treatment. The companies want to continue manufacturing the parquat technical shall add sufficient vomitories, odorants, and colorants into their products. And those who want to export the AS products outside China shall apply alteration for manufacturing license by July 1^st,2014, in submitting their Registration Certification for the technical and the AS, as well as the original manufacturing license. As the grace period for using the original labels of aqua preparations will be ended by December 31th, 2013 and the use of the AS preparation will completely be banned by July 1^st, 2016, ICAMA suggested the manufacturers to make feasible operating plans for their products to ensuring the products exit from market timely.