Chinese Standard: Cotton Independent Certification And Evaluation System Should Be Established

In recent years, H&M、 Uniqlo and other brands' boycott of Xinjiang cotton caused widespread concern, and an organization called "Good Cotton Development Association" (BCI) emerged. The association has established a set of cotton certification evaluation standards, claiming to promote the sustainable development of the cotton industry through this certification. As of May 2020, it has 1953 members worldwide.

However, insiders believe that the cotton planting standards in Xinjiang are basically high at present, and some BCI standards have been eliminated in China. With a low professional standard, BCI earned a lot of membership fees in the Chinese market, but criticized China.

This is not just the case with cotton. International "soft bulk commodities" such as wood, soybeans and rubber are all owned by overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs). These NGOs actively attract large companies at the downstream purchasing end of the industrial chain to join, translate the requirements of buyers into corresponding certification rules, and promote their certification and evaluation system to upstream or midstream enterprises. Products or raw materials that pass their certification and evaluation are easier to purchase.

At present, the certification and evaluation of many products in China is restricted by others, which has become a major constraint in the development of the industry.

European and American countries set the threshold for the application of key basic materials through certification and evaluation. In key areas, the lack of voice in certification and evaluation has become a bottleneck in the development of China's manufacturing industry, even affecting the healthy development of some industries in China. Certification evaluation itself is the process of producing an effective data chain. When materials and products are sent to foreign institutions for certification evaluation, there is also a risk of leakage of China's technical information and core data.

The barrier free environment certification implemented in China in the past two years is a whole process evaluation. From whether the barrier free facilities on the original design drawings are scientific and reasonable, to whether the construction process is rigorous, and then to whether the disabled reviewers experience the convenience and safety in person after completion, this certification evaluation is not the qualification verification of a single product, but the certification of multiple dimensions in a scene and multiple links in a process, which is a systematic and integrated certification evaluation.

China's independent certification and evaluation system is a "big network" integrating four chains of industry chain, innovation chain, standardization chain and effective data chain. The whole process includes multiple links such as material selection, processing and product production. The process, environmental parameters, testing methods, equipment, standards, management measures and other elements interact to form a multi interlaced chain network configuration.

Innovation chain driven, standardized chain carrier, effective data chain support, industrial chain promotion, and four chain collaborative integration can realize the global quality standardization certification evaluation. This new certification and evaluation system has two major characteristics: "four integrity" and "four characteristics". The "four integrity" means to cover the whole industry chain, the whole process, the whole life cycle and the whole domain. The "four characteristics" means that the certification technology path should include scientific rationality of design, conformity of product indicators, stability of production process and serviceability.

Quality certification is an enterprise medical certificate, market letter of credit and international trade pass, which essentially conveys trust.

The construction of China's independent certification and evaluation system is only the first step, and how to achieve mutual recognition at home and abroad is crucial. Only through mutual recognition can we achieve "one test, global access" and equal voice; Only in this way can the industrial data be retained in China and the hidden danger of data leakage be eliminated.

The certification and evaluation system abroad has been running for nearly a hundred years, but there is a big gap between China and it. But if we don't fill in the blanks, we will always fall behind.

The biggest feature of foreign certification and evaluation systems is that technology development and rule making are the same frequency, and rules are formed at the same time of industrial technology development, and then quickly promote and occupy the certification market. While vigorously developing industrial technology, China should also improve the awareness of certification and evaluation, seize the voice of rule making, and not always passively adapt to and follow the other party's rules.

Only when the industry goes global can the certification and evaluation system follow the industry and gain recognition from overseas institutions and enterprises. In this process, the government needs to select certification and evaluation brands that represent the advanced technology of the industry, organize external exchanges, and promote the integration of the independent certification and evaluation system with the international practice.