Regulations of the people’s republic of China on the prevention and control of Marine Pollution from Ships (No.10) 7 December 2011 No.11-015 Background We refer Members to previous circulars on the Regulations of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the Prevention and Control of Marine Pollution from Ships ("the Regulations"), and the postponement of the requirement that owners/operators of (a) any ship carrying polluting and hazardous cargoes in bulk or (b) any other ship above 10,000 gt enter into a pollution clean up contract with a Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) approved pollution response company before the ship enters a PRC port. Members were previously informed, pursuant to advice received from the MSA, that the MSA would publish lists of all approved contractors by the end of November. The International Group (IG) has maintained contact with the MSA and visited Beijing in November to meet with the MSA, various 'ship pollution response organisations' (SPROs), shipowners and other interested parties. Although the IG has continued to draw the MSA's attention to the difficulty which Members will face in complying with the Regulations if the enforcement date of 1 January 2012 is not put back, the IG's understanding remains that the requirement to contract with an approved SPRO will still be enforced in all Chinese ports from 1 January 2012 and there will be a very short period of time for owners/operators to contract with an approved spill responder. Although a full list of approved SPROs has still not been issued, a partial list of Level I SPROs has been published and is contained in Annex I to this circular. The IG understands that further lists of approved SPROs are likely to be issued very soon although the full lists of SPROs may not be issued until much closer to the end of this year. In order to ensure that Members can negotiate and sign the necessary contracts as soon as the list of SPROs is issued, a recommended spill response contract and autho