China will push for international recognition of its quality standards, as well as allow foreign enterprises to take part in the drafting of its domestic standards.

Yu Xinli, deputy chief of the Standardization Administration of China, said the authority will push forward mutual recognition of standards between China and other countries to make it easier for Chinese companies to enter new markets and assist in the development of trade.

“It could be other countries adopting China’s standards on certain products. It could also be China adopting other countries’ standards on certain products,” she told a news conference on March 20.

The move would help to ensure the quality of products in areas such as food safety, manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare and technology.

China recently signed an agreement with the United Kingdom on the mutual recognition of standards on more than 100 products.

Yu added that the authority will relax restrictions on foreign enterprises taking part in the drafting of standards in the country.

Meanwhile, the authority will continue to play active roles in the International Organization for Standardization and take leading roles for products that are indigenous to China, and over which Chinese companies have a major market share, such as traditional Chinese medicine.

In a State Council executive meeting on Feb 11, Premier Li Keqiang called for a solution to the country’s low standards and weak management.

The government will unify all compulsory national, local and industrial standards into compulsory national standards to make them more binding, according to the meeting.

Meanwhile, industry associations, chambers of commerce and industrial technology alliances are encouraged to set standards that meet the needs of the market and innovation.

China currently has more than 100,000 recommended national, industry and local standards, more than 70 percent of which are noncompulsory. There are also more than 1 million standards drafted by enterprises.

Yu said the authority will loosen the regulation on the two above categories as the reform proceeds.

“We will allow industry associations and chambers to take over the recommended standards. For the standards drafted by the enterprise, they can be declared to the public by the enterprises themselves,” she said.