China to tighten supervision of cosmetics industry

BEIJING - China's drug watchdog is soliciting public opinion on tighter supervision rules for the production of cosmetics.

According to the temporary rules on production and inspection released by the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) on Tuesday, cosmetics manufacturers must establish a mechanism to ensure their products are traceable from warehouse to sales.

The CFDA will also require manufacturers to monitor and report adverse reactions related to their products and set up a product recall system.

The rules mandate that manufacturers deal with adverse reaction cases that may be linked to their products after investigation and assessment. The recall process should also be documented, the CFDA said.

For subcontracted products, the new rules ask the contractors and subcontractors to clarify their responsibilities and ink an agreement to guarantee product quality.

China's cosmetics market has seen a compound annual growth rate of 10.8 percent over the past decade.

A report released at the HB Global Cosmetics Summit 2014 in January showed China's annual cosmetics sales topped 200 billion yuan (about 32 billion US dollars) in 2014, snatching a market share of 8.8 percent globally, second only to the United States.