Measures for Administration of Alcohol Circulation

Chapter I General Principles

Article 1 These measures are formulated according to relative national laws and regulations for the purposes of regulating the order of alcohol circulation, promoting the regular development of alcohol market and safeguarding legal rights and interests of alcohol producers, managers and consumers.

Article 2 Alcohol in terms of these measures means alcoholic drinks that the alcohol content is more than 0.5% (volume fractions), including fermented liquor, distilled liquor, formulated liquor, edible alcohol and other drinks containing alcohol, excluding medical liquor, health food liquor produced with the approval of relative administrations of the state in accordance with laws.

Alcohol circulation in terms of these measures includes alcohol wholesale, retail, storage and transportation and other operation activities.

Article 3 Whoever is engaged in alcohol circulation within the boundary of the People’s Republic of China should abide by these measures.

Article 4 Alcohol circulation performs the systems of managers’ record registration and tracing to the source.

Article 5 Ministry of Commerce is in charge of the supervision and administration of nationwide alcohol circulation.
The competent commercial departments at the level of higher than county are responsible for the supervision and administration of alcohol circulation within their administrative areas.

Chapter II Record Registration

Article 6 The unit or individuals who are engaged in alcohol wholesale or retail (alcohol managers) should register for record to the competent commercial authority at the same level of industrial and commercial administrative department in the registration areas according to dependencies management principles within 60 days at obtaining of the business license.

Article 7 The procedures for record registration for the alcohol managers are as follows:

1. get Record Registration Form for Alcohol Circulation (Registration Form in short below). Registration Form may be downloaded from the government network of the Ministry of Commerce (http://www.mofcom.gov.cn), or get it from the local competent commercial departments.

2. fill in Registration Form. Alcohol managers should fill in Registration Form completely, correctly and strictly according to the facts, and read the provisions in the Registration Form at the same time, the Registration Form should be signed and affixed a seal by legal representative or the owner.

3. submit following materials for record registration to the competent commercial department:

(1) Registration Form filled in according to Article 7, Section 2 of these measures in duplicate;

(2) Copy of business license and health permit signed and affixed a seal by legal representative or the owner;

(3) Other materials approved by the Ministry of Commerce and requested in the public notice by provincial competent commercial department.

Article 8 The competent commercial department should handle record registration formalities within 5 working days at receipt of above materials submitted by alcohol managers, and affix a seal on the Registration Form.

Article 9 The competent commercial department should record and keep record registration information and materials of the alcohol manager completely and correctly, establish record registration files, report to the competent administration at a higher level and may publish the information to the society.

Article 10 If any item in the registration form has any changes, alcohol managers should apply for going through change formalities to the competent commercial department within 30 days as of the date of change (the item subject to industrial and commercial affairs should be handled within 30 days as of the date of change in industrial and commercial registration).
The competent commercial department should handle the change formalities within 5 working days at receipt of the written materials submitted by the alcohol managers.

Registration Form shall lose efficacy automatically from the day when the industrial and commercial administrations cancel the registration or revoke the business license of the alcohol managers. The competent commercial department should verify regularly the cancellation or revoking with industrial and commercial administrations at the same level.

Article 11 The competent commercial departments can only collect cost of production approved by local price department and should not collect other costs when they handle the formalities of record registration or record change.

Article 12 Alcohol managers must not forge, alter, rent, lend, transfer, buy and sell or obtain by cheating Record Registration Form for Alcohol Circulation.

Chapter III Operation Rules

Article 13 Any one engaged in alcohol wholesale, retail, storage and transportation should perform the provisions of relative standard of the state or industry in accordance with laws.

Article 14 Alcohol managers (the suppliers) should fill in Attached Documents for Alcohol Circulation ("Attached Documents" in short below) when they wholesale alcoholic commodities, recording the detailed circulation information of alcoholic commodities. Attached Documents is attached in the whole process of alcohol circulation. The documents should go with the commodities and the two should match each other so as to realize the retroactivity of circulation information of alcoholic commodities in the whole process from the production to sale.

The content of Attached Documents should include selling unit (name, address, number of record registration and contact form)，name of the buyer, date of selling, sold commodities (name, specification, origin, production numbers, quantity, unit) and etc. The seal of the manager should be affixed.

The alcohol managers who have established perfect trace to the source system meeting the requirements of these measures may use the documents made by themselves to replace the Attached Documents stipulated in these measures with the approval of the Ministry of Commerce.

Article 15 When purchasing alcoholic commodities, alcohol managers should ask for the copies of the suppliers' business license, health permit, production permit (only the producer), registration form, the authorization letter for alcohol marketing (only the producer).

Alcohol managers should ask for the copy of effective certificate of product quality inspection of every batch of alcoholic commodities they purchased, and the Attached Documents affixed a seal of alcohol manager or the documents according with the provisions of Article 14, section 2 of these measures. To the imported alcoholic commodities, they should also ask for the copies of Hygiene Certificate for Imported Foods and Label Verification Certificate for Imported Food issued by national entry and exit inspection and quarantine department.

Alcohol managers should establish purchasing and selling account for alcohol business and maintain it for three years.

Article 16 Alcohol managers should sell alcohol in bulk with label in a fixed place, should not sell alcohol in bulk from place to place.

The container of alcohol in bulk should meet the requirements of national food hygiene, pasted the symbol meeting national label standard of alcoholic drinks, and indicate clearly the efficacy for sale after opening, the manager and the telephone number.

Article 17 Alcohol managers should meet the requirements of food sanitation management, fire safety, storage and transportation when they store and transport alcoholic commodities. Alcoholic commodities should be far away from high pollution and high radiation area, should not be stored together with the toxic, harmful and corrosive goods and pollutants (sources).

Article 18 Alcohol managers should mark the price clearly, honest and trustworthy while selling alcoholic commodities.

Article 19 Alcohol managers should not sell alcoholic commodities to the minors and should express clearly in a marked place of the operation area.

Article 20 Wholesale, retail, storage and transportation of following commodities are forbidden:

1. alcoholic commodities adulterated with non-edible alcohol harmful to human health;

2. alcoholic commodities of which the name, address of the production factory and production date are forged and tampered with;

3. alcoholic commodities that have violated the exclusive rights to use the trademarks and Intellectual Property;

4. adulterated, shoddy, false and out-of-date alcoholic commodities, and illegal imported alcohol;

5. other alcoholic commodities prohibited to be sold in accordance with national laws and regulations.

Chapter IV Supervision and Administration

Article 21 The competent commercial departments at the level higher than county supervise and administer the alcohol circulation in their administrative areas in accordance with relative national laws, regulations and theses measures.

The competent commercial departments at all levels should not restrict or hinder the circulation of legal alcoholic commodities in this area.

Article 22 The competent commercial departments should show their effective certificate when they perform supervision and administration. Law enforcement staffs should not be less than two. When they have evidence or accept an informant, the law enforcement staffs may look up account book or select sample for check after showing their effective certificate to the persons concerned.

The competent commercial departments have the obligations to keep commercial secret for the persons concerned.

Alcohol managers should cooperated with the supervision examination made by the competent commercial departments and provide information strictly according to the facts, should not transfer, destroy without permission the alcoholic commodities to be checked.

Article 23 The competent commercial departments should establish alcohol circulation monitoring system, monitoring and analyzing alcohol circulation in the local area, establishing credit files for alcohol managers, and publishing the information to the society timely.

The Ministry of Commerce should use modern information technology to establish alcohol circulation administration system and safety information system. The competent commercial departments at all levels and alcohol managers should report corresponding information in time.

Article 24 The competent commercial departments may select samples of alcohol commodities sold in this area for check themselves or together with relative departments and may publish the check result to the society.

The appraising conclusion on the alcohol commodities issued or approved by the competent commercial departments should be on the basis of check result of national legal testing agencies or the identification report of the enterprises whose lawful rights are infringed on.

Article 25 Encourage alcohol industry organizations to establish and perfect industry self-discipline system.

Article 26 All units and individuals have the rights to report or complain the activities violating these measures to local competent commercial departments, industrial and commercial administrations or relative departments.

Chapter V Legal Liability

Article 27 Whoever violates the provisions of Article 6, Article 10 Section 1 of these measures should be given a warning and instructed to make correction by the competent commercial department. Any alcohol manager who refuses to make correction within the time limited may be imposed a fine of less than 2 thousand yuan in light of the circumstances and the punishment may be published to the society.

Whoever violates the provision of Article 12 may be imposed a fine of less than 10 thousand yuan in light of the circumstances. Whoever violates the industrial and commercial administrative laws and regulations should be transferred to the industrial and commercial administrations for punishment in accordance with laws. Whoever commits a crime should be ascertained criminal responsibility.

Article 28 Whoever violates Article 14 and 15 of these measures should be given a warning and ordered to make correction by the competent commercial departments and the punishment may be published to the society. Whoever refuses to make correction may be imposed a fine less than 5 thousand yuan in light of circumstances and the punishment should be published to the society.

Article 29 Whoever violates Article 16 and 17 of these measures should be given a warning and ordered to make correction by the competent commercial departments. If the case is serious, a fine of less than 10 thousand yuan may be imposed and the case may be transferred to the industrial and commercial administrations. Whoever commits a crime should be ascertained criminal responsibility.

Article 30 Whoever violates Article 19 of these measures should be given a warning and ordered to make correction by the competent commercial departments. If the case is serious, a fine of less than 2 thousand yuan should be imposed.

Article 31 Whoever violates Article 20 of these measures should be imposed a fine of less than 30 thousand yuan in light of circumstances and whose illegal commodities should be confiscated by the competent commercial department together with relative departments. Whoever violates industrial and commercial administrative laws and regulations or the exclusive rights to use trademarks should be transferred to the industrial and commercial administrations for punishment in accordance with laws. Whoever violates other laws and regulations should be transferred to corresponding agencies for punishment in accordance with laws. Whoever commits a crime should be ascertained criminal responsibility.

Article 32 Whoever violates Article 22 Section 3 of these measures should be given a warning by the competent commercial departments and instructed to make correction. If the case is serious, a fine of less than 10 thousand yuan may be imposed.

Article 33 If the competent commercial departments violate the provisions of these measures during supervision and administration of alcohol circulation should be given administrative sanction in accordance with laws.

Article VI Supplementary Articles

Article 34 The areas that have performed administrative permission management for alcohol circulation should perform continuously the permission system and the system of trace to the source to the circulation of alcoholic commodities. Alcohol circulation permit is regarded as Registration Form.

Article 35 Registration Form and Attached Documents are made uniformly by the Ministry of Commerce. Provincial competent commercial departments are responsible for the concrete implementation.

Article 36 The competent commercial departments at the lever higher than county may authorize corresponding agencies to be engaged in the supervision and administration of alcohol circulation in accordance with laws.

Article 37 The interpretation of these measures is vested in the Ministry of Commerce.

Article 38 These measures shall come into effect on January 1, 2006 and set 3 months as transitional period on the date of implementation. During the transitional period, alcohol managers should handle record registration and establish alcohol trace to the source system in accordance with these measures.