NPC draft to address live animal trade

Pandemic prevention legislation, food product safety primary considerations

The top legislature will begin review of the latest draft law on Saturday that proposes to better manage live animal trade and agricultural markets across the country.

Legislators will also examine how a decision they made in February banning consumption of wild animals has been implemented in the past few months, according to the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

A draft revision to the law on animal epidemic prevention will be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for a second review at its bimonthly session from Saturday to Tuesday, Zang Tiewei, spokesman of the Legislative Affairs Commission under the NPC Standing Committee, said on Friday. A draft law usually receives three reviews from the top legislature before being put to a vote.

The latest revision includes stipulations that require markets dealing with animals or animal-related products to have epidemic prevention capabilities in place. Governments above the county level will be authorized to decide whether to ban live animal trading in certain areas according to their real time local circumstances, Zang said.

Amendments to other public health-related laws, such as those related to wildlife protection, epidemiological precautions, emergency response and quarantine measures are also being drafted, and will be submitted for deliberation as soon as possible, he added.

These moves are among efforts by the top legislature to improve public health-related laws and address weak links exposed amid the country's fight against COVID-19 this year.

In April, the NPC Standing Committee adopted a legislative work plan to strengthen public health－the first time that the top legislature formulated a plan for making laws and amendments for a particular sector.

"We're also studying how to improve public health-related content in the Civil Code, including content concerning property expropriation and contract implementation in emergencies," Zang said.

Legislators attending the NPC Standing Committee session will also review a report on the implementation of a decision they made in February to ban all animals on the protected list within the existing Wild Animal Protection Law or other laws including some artificially bred and farmed animals.

Other items on the agenda include reviewing a draft law on urban construction and maintenance taxes, a draft law on deed taxes, a draft revision to the law on combating juvenile delinquency and a draft amendment to the copyright law.

Proposals to amending the law on NPC organs, the NPC's procedural rules, the national flag law and the national emblem law as well as some work reports from the State Council and the National Supervisory Commission will also be reviewed during the session.