China said on Wednesday that United States importers and brand
owners should take responsibility for recalled toys, after it
emerged that the US product quality watchdog logged 29 recall cases
involving toys made in China in 2006.
"Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) were performing
their duties as importers requested, and the toys conformed with
all US regulations and standards at the time of production," said a
spokesman with China's General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
One recall of magnetic construction toys by the US Consumer
Product Safety Commission (CPSC), for example, can be attributed to
the brand owner's design and leaves the OEM blameless, said the
spokesman.
Chinese OEMs produced over 80 percent of toy exports to the US
with the vast majority being up to American standards, said the
spokesman.
China exported 300,000 batches of toys to the United States last
year, with the CPSC only filing 29 recall cases.
The spokesman called for improved product design and quality
supervision to allow loopholes in quality control to swiftly be
shut.
A recall case filed by US RC2 Corp. and CPSC last month involved
toy trains made by a Guangdong-based company which used paint
containing lead poisonous to children.
On Aug. 2, another toy company, Fisher-Price, also recalled more
than one million character toys due to poor paint quality. The
producer's paint provider had used fake materials in mixing the
paint.
China's quality control department has suspended the export of
the problematic toys, and a police investigation has been opened in
the matter.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)
