Hazardous chemical or dangerous goods? In China they are two different questions

The most expensive misunderstanding in this category is a vocabulary problem. In English, hazardous and dangerous are near-synonyms and a shipper reasonably treats them as one subject. In Chinese regulation they name two separate systems, with separate catalogues, separate authorities and separate obligations, and a consignment can fall under either, both, or neither.

Two examples make the split concrete:

• Boric acid is a hazardous chemical, but not dangerous goods. Many chronic health and environmental hazards are not recognised by the transport classification criteria at all.
• A lithium battery is dangerous goods, but not a hazardous chemical. So is an automotive airbag.

Getting this wrong in either direction produces the same outcome — a declaration that does not match the goods.

Regulatory basis

• 《危险化学品安全管理条例》 — Regulations on the Safe Management of Hazardous Chemicals, State Council Order No. 591
• 《危险化学品目录（2015版）》 — Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals (2015 edition) — and its implementation guidance 安监总厅管三〔2015〕80号
• 《危险货物分类和品名编号》 GB 6944-2012 — Classification and Code of Dangerous Goods
• 《化学品分类和标签》 GB 30000 series — chemical classification and labelling
• 《化学品物理危险性鉴定与分类管理办法》 — Measures for the Identification and Classification of Physical Hazards of Chemicals, State Administration of Work Safety Order No. 60
• 《危险化学品登记管理办法》 — Measures for the Administration of Hazardous Chemicals Registration, State Administration of Work Safety Order No. 53
• GACC announcement No. 129 of 2020, on inspection of imported and exported hazardous chemicals and their packaging
• 应急厅〔2022〕300号 — amending the 2015 implementation guidance in respect of diesel, effective 1 January 2023

The two definitions, side by side

Hazardous chemical (Order No. 591): a highly toxic chemical or other chemical with toxic, corrosive, explosive, combustible or combustion-supporting properties that endangers people, facilities or the environment. In practice: a product listed in the Catalogue of Hazardous Chemicals. Hazard characteristics fall into three groups — physical, health and environmental — across twenty-nine categories.

The regulation does not apply to civil explosives, fireworks, radioactive materials, nuclear materials, or chemicals used in defence research and production. Those have their own regimes.

Dangerous goods (GB 6944-2012): substances and articles with explosive, flammable, toxic, infectious, corrosive or radioactive properties that require special protection in transport, storage, production, trade, use and disposal. Nine classes: explosives, gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidising substances, toxic substances, radioactive material, corrosive substances and miscellaneous dangerous goods.

Dangerous goods packaging is a third defined thing: containers for dangerous goods, generally not more than 400 kg net weight and 450 litres net capacity, covering combination, single and composite packaging — but not IBCs, large packagings, gas cylinders or tanks. Export dangerous goods packaging is subject to customs inspection and appraisal in its own right.

Five ways a product is judged to be a hazardous chemical

Any one of these can settle it:

1. Direct match against the catalogue. If it is listed, it is a hazardous chemical. Some entries carry concentration conditions that must be met. Example: entry 172, nitrogen (compressed or liquefied), CAS 7727-37-9.
2. Classification under the GB 30000 series. Compare the hazard summary, physico-chemical properties, toxicological and ecological information in the SDS against the national hazard categories.
3. Industrial product standard, for entries with no stated concentration. An entry without a concentration means the industrial-grade product or purer. Example: entry 2507, hydrochloric acid, CAS 7647-01-0, carries no concentration — so the judgement runs against the total acidity specified in the industrial hydrochloric acid standard GB/T 320.
4. The mixture rule. Where the main components are all catalogue-listed and their combined mass or volume fraction is not less than 70%, the mixture is treated as a hazardous chemical and managed as one. A mixture of 45% potassium nitrate, 50% sodium nitrite and 5% water is judged directly on this basis. Below 70%, or where hazard characteristics are undetermined, the producer or importer arranges identification and classification under Order No. 60 — and if the result brings it within the criteria, registration is required, though the safety administrative licences are not.
5. Entry 2828. This is a generic entry rather than a named product: anything meeting its flash point criterion is a hazardous chemical under it. It captures synthetic resins, paints, auxiliaries and coatings containing flammable solvents. There is an exemption route — a liquid above the lower flash point threshold but not above the upper one, which gives a negative result in the sustained combustibility test, may be treated as non-flammable.

Note also the diesel definition, amended with effect from 1 January 2023: diesel means product conforming to GB 19147 (automotive diesel) or GB 25199 (B5 diesel), and does not include BD100 biodiesel made by reacting animal or vegetable oils, or waste oils, with alcohol.

Physical hazard identification is mandatory for:

• chemicals containing one or more catalogue-listed components whose overall physical hazard is undetermined;
• chemicals not on the catalogue whose physical hazard is undetermined;
• chemicals for research or product development where annual production or use exceeds one tonne and physical hazard is undetermined.

If it is a hazardous chemical: registration comes before the first import

An importing company must complete hazardous chemical registration before its first import — not before the first sale, and not at the border. New production facilities complete registration before commissioning acceptance, and are advised to do it during trial production.

The registration record itself covers:

• classification and labelling information — hazard category, pictogram, signal word, hazard statements, precautionary statements;
• physical and chemical properties — appearance, solubility, melting and boiling points, flash point, explosive limits, auto-ignition and decomposition temperatures;
• principal uses, including prohibited or restricted uses;
• hazard characteristics;
• safety requirements for storage, use and transport;
• emergency response measures.

Three practical points:

• The certificate runs for three years. A change-of-details reissue does not restart that term.
• Changes are filed within fifteen working days — company name, registered address, registered varieties, the emergency advisory telephone number, or the discovery of a new hazard characteristic in a product already registered.
• The emergency advisory telephone is a real obligation, not a form field. It must be a dedicated fixed-line number, printed on the product’s SDS and safety label and used for nothing else, open twenty-four hours a day barring force majeure. The people answering it have to know the classification, properties, uses, hazards, safety requirements and emergency measures for the company’s products. A company that cannot provide this must appoint the registration body to provide the service on its behalf.

That last requirement is worth reading carefully by any overseas producer assuming a head-office switchboard will do.

What has to be declared on import

For imports, the consignee or agent declares the goods attribute, the inspection and quarantine name, the hazard category, the packaging category, the UN number, the UN packaging mark and the customs office where examination will take place, and uploads:

• The Declaration of Conformity for Imported Hazardous Chemicals
• Where the product requires an inhibitor or stabiliser, a statement of what was actually added and in what quantity
• Samples of the Chinese hazard communication label — bulk products excepted — and the Chinese SDS

For exports, the consignor submits a producer’s declaration of conformity, the packaging performance test result sheet (except bulk and internationally exempted packaging), and a hazard classification identification report. Label and SDS samples go with them, translated into Chinese where the originals are in another language.

Export dangerous goods packaging carries two separate appraisals: performance appraisal obtained by the packaging manufacturer, which requires a producer code from the local customs office first, and use appraisal obtained by the exporter after the goods are packed. Goods in containers that have not passed appraisal may not be exported, and the use appraisal result sheet is what the trading company presents to arrange the dangerous goods booking.

Small quantities: two levels of relief, not an escape

Where goods are dangerous goods, quantity can reduce what applies:

Excepted Quantity (EQ) — very small quantities where risk is considered negligible, attracting the widest relief and, in road transport, close to invisibility. Availability is signalled by an E code in the dangerous goods list.

Limited Quantity (LQ) — small packages within a stated quantity limit, where risk is limited and controlled. Partial and conditional relief, not treatment as general cargo. Signalled by L/Y codes.

Three cautions that matter more than the definitions:

• Air is the strictest mode. Rules differ between road, sea and air, and what travels under relief on a truck may not by aircraft. The governing rules are those of origin, transit and destination — JT/T 617 in China, ADR, RID, IMDG and IATA internationally.
• Packaging is still tested packaging. EQ and LQ both require properly tested, quality-conforming packaging.
• Relief does not transfer responsibility. The shipper remains responsible for correct classification, packing, marking and information, whichever relief applies.

Where to start

For a product you have not shipped to China before, start by establishing whether it is on the hazardous chemicals catalogue and whether it is dangerous goods. Ask the two questions separately, because the answers can differ. Then settle registration if it is the former, and classification, packaging and packaging appraisal if it is the latter. Both answers are needed before a quotation means anything.

If the substance is not yet on your registered inventory, that is a solvable problem but not a fast one. It is one of the cases we have handled as importer of record, by adding the substance to our own registered varieties rather than by putting a buyer’s name on a declaration it cannot lawfully make.