China, under fire, seeks to stop toy scares

By Tony Czuczka Sep 12, 2007, 0:38 GMT

Washington - China pledged Tuesday to crack down on exports of lead-tainted toys to the United States, which have prompted major recalls and raised broader questions about Chinese product safety.

China will step up cooperation with US regulators and launch 'a comprehensive plan to eliminate the use of lead paint' in toys exported to the US, both sides said after a meeting in Washington.

'We are full of confidence in resolving the contradictions and disputes between our two countries in the area of product safety,' Wei Chuanzhong, China's vice minister for quality supervision, told reporters.

At what was billed as the second US-Chinese summit on product safety, China agreed to increase inspections of consumer goods headed to the US and to help US authorities trace dangerous products back to their origins in China.

Product safety has emerged as a new, emotionally-charged point of friction in US-Chinese ties, already tense because of the huge US trade deficit in China. The European Union has also voiced concern about Chinese imports.

Mattel Inc, the world's largest toymaker, has recalled more than 2 million Chinese-made toys since August because they contained lead paint in violation of a US ban. Mattel has recalled millions more because of small magnets that children could swallow.

Family entertainment giant Disney Co, which licenses toy characters to Mattel, this week announced its own tests for lead paint, which has been banned on toys sold in the US since 1978.

With American children's health at stake and the Christmas shopping season approaching, the toy recalls have resonated like few other Chinese product scares. China ships 80 per cent of the toys sold in the US.

Nancy Nord, acting head of the US government's Consumer Product Safety Commission, welcomed the accord with China but promised 'very stringent' enforcement if more Chinese-made toys flout the lead ban.

In one step to combat the problem, Chinese paint manufacturers are being required to obtain approval from China's product safety agency, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, before they supply toy makers, Wei said.

US trade data Tuesday underscored how much is at stake: China's goods trade surplus with the US was up 22 per cent in July from a year earlier to 23.8 billion dollars - even as the overall US trade gap shrank.

'As long as China keeps cheating, the US trade deficit with China will keep rising,' charged Auggie Tantillo of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, a pressure group that seeks to preserve US manufacturing jobs.

Chinese product scares have focussed attention on lax regulation in China, but US consumer advocates say underfunded, overstretched regulation in the United States also is to blame.

Health Secretary Mike Leavitt this week acknowledged shortcomings in the US system for ensuring that imports such as food and toys are safe.

Before a meeting with President George W Bush on Monday, Leavitt proposed an overhaul in the way US agencies monitor and enforce product safety. Cooperation among regulators and with industry needs to improve, he said.

'I'd like to know, for example, that ... if the product is recalled, it can be off the shelves in a matter of hours, as opposed to days,' Leavitt told reporters.

Last week, Bush discussed China's efforts to step up product safety with Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of an Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Australia.

Hu told Bush that the Chinese government took product safety seriously and was interested in greater cooperation with the US on the problem, US officials said.