China to maintain safety standards requirement in export
9 Aug 2007
Recent reports from a lot of sources suggest China’s violation of safety norms in its exports, specifically those related to medicinal drugs. Under pressure from a lot of American companies, as well as complains from other countries, China has reacted by punishing certain companies for breaching export rules.
According to the Xinhua sources, China has blacklisted more than 400 exporters for following a series of food, drug and other health scares across the world. The list included two pet food manufacturers that had exported to the United States. It has also put on trial five drug company managers accused of killing patients with a tainted medicine, exposing corruption and lax safety.
This has alarmed consumers worldwide. Washington stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of some pets there earlier this year. Poisonous ingredients were also found in Chinese exports of toys, toothpaste and fish, while the deaths of patients in Panama was blamed on improperly labeled Chinese chemicals that were mixed into cough syrup.
In the latest scare, U.S. toy maker Mattel Inc. said on Wednesday that it was recalling 1.5 million Chinese-made toys worldwide because their paint may contain too much lead. Reacting to this, China has banned two factories from exporting toys, including Big Bird and Elmo because of fears about lead in paint.
China stripped export licenses from Hansheng Wooden Products Factory and Lida Toy Company, both based in the booming southern province of Guangdong, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine watchdog said on its Web site on Thursday.
The Chinese watchdog said the problem was with the manufacturer’s paint supplier, which had provided "fake lead-free" paint for use in production. It ordered the companies to "correct" their problems, and said police were investigating. However, it also defended the made-in-China brand and said the overwhelming majority of toys met American standards. Of about 300,000 batches for export, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had only made about 29 recalls, it said.
Also, the Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng stressed the government line that Chinese products were overwhelmingly safe and of high quality, and called on foreign media not to hype the problems of a small minority of goods or companies.
"China will strengthen international cooperation on the safety of products," Gao was quoted as saying.
China, where the former drug and food safety watchdog chief was executed last month for corruption, has also cancelled the licenses of six medicine manufacturers. The China Daily said 270 "on-the-spot drug test" vans would soon hit the roads of rural China to weed out counterfeit drugs.
While the process of investigation of Chinese products has been stepped up to a large extent, it remains to be seen how far it would affect China’s export volume.
Resource: www.today.reuters.com/news
Released on: 9 August 2007
