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The draft notification aims at amending the list of Hazardous Substances (under the Hazardous Substances Act) . This proposed list involves the revision and inclusion of the respected hazardous substances attached to the Notification of Ministry of Industry on List of Hazardous Substances B.E. 2556 (2013) and the List of Hazardous Substances (No.4) B.E. 2560 (2017) .

The updating law stipulated major amendments as the following:

• To state the definition for "Transit" of hazardous substances as to reflect the genuine manner of its activity which is clearly separate from the "Import". This aspect facilitates lower burden and speeds up the customs process for hazardous substances entrepreneurs whereby it reduces the bureaucratic steps from the original processing. The new rules have been established for more appropriate regulation, for instance, as the following:

- Requirements for damage insurance.

- Identifying the specific customs border for "transit" of hazardous substances.

- Upon the completion of all "transit" activities, the respected commodity shall be exported within 5 days from its release by the import customs check point.

- The "transit" licensee shall be a legally registered hazardous substances importer-exporter under the Kingdom of Thailand's legislation.

- Determining the "transit" license fee.

• To impose a waiver for substances that are necessary to be brought back or returned, in order to reduce the excessive duty from repeating the same procedure, provided that the responsible authority provisions and conditions are flowed.

• To establish provisions aimed at exemption for unitizations of hazardous substances under the purposes of study, analysis, research and development. This prosperous rule will reduce undue burden and introduce more efficient in practice.

• With respect to the regulation of hazardous substances advertisement, the related provision has been stipulated enabling full supervision by its own authority. The section shall comprehensively invalidate the previous implementation under the consumer protection legislation.

• To stipulate provisions in accordance to the payment of preliminary damage: it compensates those who have been adversely affected by hazardous substances including the responding agency. In case the commodity has been insured, the compensation shall be paid beforehand without liability approval.

• Additional provisions: The responsible agency shall demand the importer or "transit" operator, that violates or does not comply with the law, to urgently deliver of hazardous substances outside the Kingdom of Thailand and once determine that such hazardous substances shall not be destroyed or manipulated in the Kingdom of Thailand, the responsible agency shall collect hazardous substances sample(s) as necessary evidence for the proceedings.

Ministry of Public Health has proposed the draft notification of the Fact relating to Type 1 Hazardous Substances under responsibility of Thai Food and Drug Administration.

The Ministry of Industry has proposed to withdraw the list of hazardous substances under the hazardous substances list attached to the Ministry of Industry Notification; Re. List of Hazardous Substances B.E. 2556 (2013) dated 28 August B.E. 2556 (2013), List 1.1, under the responsibility of Department of Agriculture. Manufacturers, importers, exporters, or any person having in possession of type 4 hazardous substances (prohibited pesticides) as listed in this notification prior to the effective date shall abide by the order of authorized officials within 30 days of the effective date.

This notification will be published in the Royal Gazette and will be in effect on 1 December 2019

With a view to implementing the Organic Agriculture Promotion Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), which will come into force on 30 May 2019, the Council of Agriculture is proposing the Draft Enforcement Rules for Organic Agriculture Promotion Act to provide further details in the following aspects:

1. To provide additional definitions of terms (Articles 2-3);

2. To specify the ratio of basic raw material content for organic agricultural processed products and agricultural products in conversion to organic farming (Article 4);

3. To identify matters to be observed (including confidentiality) by the competent authority in performing supervisory activities under the Act (Articles 5-6);

4. To specify methods of determining compliance of imported organic agricultural products with the requirements specified in Article 17 of the Act and the review procedures for announcing countries or WTO Members with organic equivalency (Articles 7-8);

5. To specify the unit of containers or packaging where labelling is required (Article 9); and

6. To specify the types of information and records to be checked or sampled for inspection by the competent authority when performing their responsibilities (Article 10) .

With a view to implementing Article 17 of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), regarding the development of review procedures, data retention and other related management matters for imported organic agricultural products, the Council of Agriculture is proposing the Draft of Regulations Governing Imported Organic Agricultural Product Review and Inspection Management.

With a view to implementing Articles 17, 19 and 20 of the Organic Agriculture Promotion Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), regarding the marking, labelling, display and other matters of organic agricultural products, agricultural products in conversion to organic farming and imported organic agricultural products, the Council of Agriculture is proposing the Draft of Regulations Governing the Labeling and Marks Management of Organic Agricultural Products and Agricultural Products in Conversion to Organic Farming.

Wireless chargers are widely used to charge electronic devices, such as tablets or mobile phones. A survey of such products raised safety concerns in aspects of overheating, fire-resistance and others. In order to protect consumers from relevant hazards arising from the use of such products and to protect the environment, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology, and Inspection (BSMI) proposes to regulate the safety, EMC, and hazardous substances of wireless charger products. The inspection standards are CNS 14336-1 for safety, CNS 13438 for EMC, and Section 5 of CNS 15663 for marking of the presence of six hazardous substances, including Lead (Pb), Mercury (Hg), Cadmium (Cd), Hexavalent Chromium (Cr+6), Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB), and Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE) . Where the main working frequency of the wireless chargers is less than 30MHz, they shall also comply with the magnetic field radiation requirements of CNS 13803 (2003) . The conformity assessment procedure shall be Registration of Product Certification (Module II Type Test + Module III Conformity to Type Declaration) .

Electric Cookers have been subject to mandatory inspection under the Commodity Inspection Act by the Bureau of Standards Metrology and Inspection since 25 May 1972. To enhance consumer protection and promote efficiency of energy use, the BSMI proposes to adopt the latest version of standards for inspection. In addition to that, for electric cookers with an inner pot to cook rice and a capacity less than 10L, compliance with Section 6.5 "Heat efficiency test" and Section 7 "Marking" of CNS 2518 (2016) is required.

The conformity assessment procedures remain the same, i.e. Registration of Products Certification (RPC) or Type-approved Batch Inspection (TABI).

To ensure the safety of products in use on the markets, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (BSMI) proposes to adopt the latest version of standards for the inspection of safety and electromagnetic compatibility features of electric storage tank water heaters and air conditioners with hermetic type compressor. The followings are excluded from the scope: - water heaters and air conditioners built in with a USB connection port with the main input voltage of 5V direct current (DC) but not attached cigar lighter power supply, - water heaters using only three-phase voltage supply, and - water heaters and air conditioners powered only by dry cell batteries. The conformity assessment procedures remain the same, i.e. Registration of Products Certification (PRC) or Type-approved Batch Inspection (TABI).