The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, General Administration of Customs and State Environmental Protection Administration have jointly issued an announcement promulgating the fourth and the fifth "Lists of Banned Imports."

Both lists will come into force on August 15, 2002. They are issued in accordance with the Regulations for the Administration of Imports and Exports, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste and the Notice on the Importation of Waste: Seventh Category.

Imports banned under the "Fourth List" include: untreated human hair and waste human hair; slag, dross and other similar industrial wastes; industrial ash and other waste materials containing lead, copper, tungsten, and other metals and chemical compounds; bituminous crushed stone; scrap tyres; used clothing; scrap batteries and so on.

Imports banned under the "Fifth List" are in the category of waste mechanical and electrical products and include: air-conditioning equipment, refrigerators, computer apparatus, monitors, printers, microwave ovens, electric cookers, landline telephones, fax machines, teletype equipment, video recorders, video players, laser disc players, mobile communications' apparatus, video cameras, digital cameras, TV sets, printed circuits, integrated circuits, microelectronic units, copiers, medical apparatus and radiation apparatus together with their associated spare parts, components, disassembled parts and broken parts.

(china.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, August 3, 2002)