COSSMA: The previously valid Cosmetics Hygiene Supervision Regulations is already 30 years old. What were its weak points?
Seongmin Sohn: After thorough evaluation, the 30-year-old regulations no longer fit the current industrial environment or market conditions. They are administratively inconvenient, and have led to unreasonable, ambiguous interpretations. These issues have been improved with the new CSAR (Cosmetics Supervision and Administration Regulation).
There are many other reasonable underlying factors to why the new regulations are necessary today. The Chinese cosmetics industry has become an important industry, considering it was never of much inter-est to the authorities. In addition, if advanced regulations are intro-duced during the industrial infancy or growth period, it could hinder the development of domestic industries.
From an administrative aspect, the old management system lacked practicality and convenience for all parties and considering the industry growth, a new system was needed to improve efficiency. At the same time, authorities concluded that the atmosphere to protect their own markets and promote industrial growth was ripe. It is believed that the timing of the revision was adjusted in a surprise manner to check the inflow of overseas products into the precinct and, at the same time, to strengthen the competitiveness of domestic players in China. In short, it was just ‘a time for a change’.