China pledges high quality Christmas toys--

China pledges high quality Christmas toys(1)

2007-10-18 17:52:18 [ Big Normal Small ] 　Comment

At a press conference on October 17 Li Changjiang, a minister with General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ) and delegate of the 17th National Congress of Communist Party of China (CPC), guaranteed the safety of Chinese-made toys in overseas Christmas markets. "With Christmas drawing near, Chinese manufacturers will guarantee that their export toys are safe for children all over the world," Li said. He promised that the Chinese quality watchdog would intensify their toy quality testing to ensure that toys meet quality standards in their targeted markets.

China pledges high quality Christmas toys

China pledges high quality Christmas toys

Li also urged importers to take responsibility to guarantee that the products they imported are safe. "Importers must provide quality standards for their Chinese partners. They should also conduct independent pre-tests, using a third-party laboratory before importing," the official said.

Regarding the frequent disputes on export food and product safety between China and the United States, Li said that the two sides are working actively to improve the scenario. "The China-US summits on food safety and consumer product safety held last month proved to be an important platform for the two parties to exchange information and work together to find a solution," Li stated. This month the two nations will hold further discussions regarding a proposed memorandum of understanding on bilateral food safety cooperation.

The minister pointed out that some international media has played up food and product quality issues recently. "We always identify quality problems with imported goods among ourselves. We recall them or destroy them," Li explained. "That's normal trade procedure. But some countries have brought too much attention to this matter; they've made a fuss about it." China opposes any act of using product quality as a pretense to practice trade protectionism, Li said. "It (trade protectionism) not only affects China but also benefits no other countries."

China pledges high quality Christmas toys

Li mentioned the US toy maker Mattel. This summer Mattel staged three separate recalls of China-made toys, but, as a responsible company, admitted that the vast majority of its recalled toys had American design flaws rather than Chinese manufacturing errors. Of the recalled toys, some did contain excessive lead content, he admitted. "Some Chinese toy makers haven't taken the necessary quality measures."

"Facts speak louder than words. Made-in-China products will surely regain trust from consumers," Li is confident. Mattel's frequent toy recalls have not affected China's toy production and exports at all, Li said. Production orders for Chinese toys are rising in number instead of falling. Many of Guangdong's larger toy factories now are asking their employees to work extra hours in order to meet the incredibly large demands, he revealed.

The minister said that every year 20 billion units of Chinese-made toys are exported to foreign markets and just a very tiny fraction are substandard. In response to the concern that prices of made-in-China goods may go up as the country strengthens supervision over product quality, Li countered and attributed it to market demand. "Prices of Barbie dolls reportedly will surge by 10 percent in the US but I think it's because supplies will fail to meet demand."

"Generally speaking, Chinese-made products are very safe", Li assured. He cited a report released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare about Japan's imported food. According to this governmental report, Chinese food has a very high acceptance rate, higher than the EU and US food products. The statistics included in the report show that 0.58 percent of Chinese food cannot meet Japan's standards whereas 1.1 percent of the US food are substandard. Li said that over 99 percent of the Chinese food imported to Japan, the US and the EU does meet the standards of the target markets.

| Next | | Last |

china.org.cn