U.S. Prez to China Prez: “What about product safety?”
Posted by SCapozzola on September 6th, 2007In Australia today, President Bush met with Chinese President Hu Jintao. Among the topics discussed was the safety of Chinese products. The issue is particularly timely because, just yesterday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced that Americans can expect more Chinese-made toys to be recalled in the coming months. This comes on the heels of toy manufacturer Mattel’s recent, massive recall due to excessive lead paint in some of their products. This is Mattel’s third product recall.
The lead paint toy warnings follow reports of other faulty consumer products made in China such as toothpaste and diabetes testing strips.
According to President Bush, the Chinese president was “quite articulate about product safety.” Hu himself was quoted as saying that “the Chinese government has always taken the quality of Chinese products and the safety of Chinese food very seriously.” Hu added that China has “enforced very strict inspection and examination procedures throughout the whole process of manufacturing Chinese products.”
Unfortunately, China is home to a lucrative counterfeit products industry. While the USTR has noted that piracy and illegal manufacturing of counterfeit goods is “rampant” throughout the People’s Republic, Chinese officials have yet to make a serious dent in the outflow of bogus goods. Beijing give assurances of cooperation, but the USTR still views the situation as being at “epidemic levels.”
One can only wonder, then, if Beijing has any real interest in cracking down on unsafe products. Pirated goods are notoriously shoddy, and American consumers are often unaware that they are purchasing fake perfumes, golf clubs, and toys.
Just as U.S. trade law must be strongly enforced, U.S. concerns over products safety should prompt greater scrutiny of imported goods—especially from the massive manufacturing juggernaut of China.
September 8th, 2007 at 12:27 am
This all is true. China has been responsible for faulty and toxic products, but it’s too easy to use them as a scapegoat. What about blaming Mattel for not keeping their own quality control up to snuff? I’m an editor of Today’s Machining World. Every writer makes stupid errors on the copy, and generally I can catch it. But if we put out a magazine with some terrible copy, isn’t it also my fault along with the person who wrote it?
Also, few people point out that mattel conveniently lumped the toys with the dangerous small magnates they also recalled at the same time as the lead paint toys which they blamed China for. China never designed the magnates which were small and easily swallow-able. Mattel designed them. You can read this argument here,
http://www.caijing.com.cn/newcn/English/Industry/2007-08-28/28337.shtml?source=luowei.
Americans need to take responsibility too.