On Wednesday a number of new laws and regulations come into effect in China governing farm product safety, oceanic environment protection, broadcast commercials and foreign exchange management.

China will ban the sale of farm products that fail to meet safety standards from November 1 when the country's first law on their safety comes into effect.

The law will establish a farm product safety supervision and management system as well as a farm product source registration system to ensure safety of food. A farm product safety risk analysis, appraisal and identification systems for high quality, pesticide-free farm products will also be set up.

To protect the oceanic environment from construction pollution the State Council issued a regulation which will take effect from November 1. It's aimed at providing more effective management of new, upgraded and extended projects along the coastline which exploit, utilize, protect and restore marine resources.

The location of projects like power plants, seabed tunnels, seafood breeding areas and sightseeing spots cannot affect the environment of the sea area or adjacent waters, according to the regulation.

Project managers must submit environment assessment reports to sea administration departments before construction starts. Approval can only be given after collecting opinions from maritime and fishing departments and public hearings would held if necessary, the regulation says.

Proposals for sea enclosures and infill projects must undergo public hearings before approval is given. Chinese newspapers and magazines will be prohibited from accepting misleading advertising according to a newly promulgated circular effective from November 1.

Jointly issued by the State Press and Publication Administration and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the circular prohibits publications from accepting advertising which promotes unproven medical products. Many of the ads promote male potency products, breast enlargement or magical cure-alls.

According to the administrations the advertisements that are obscene or contain superstitious content and those teaching gambling tricks will also be strictly prohibited.

In another regulation, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's foreign exchange regulator, will step up its supervision of trade-related foreign exchange (forex) dealings from November 1.

It'll classify enterprises in different categories according to their track record in forex transactions. It will strictly check forex sales by firms that have previously been involved in suspected forex speculation through disguising their trade activities.

Companies for which the discrepancy between actual export earnings and contracted sales was more than 10 percent will be classified as needing special supervision and have to submit relevant certificates for foreign exchange transactions.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)