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Chinese Ambassador to Canada Says Importers Share Blame for Unsafe Products

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 18:03 CDT

HALIFAX (CP) - China's ambassador to Canada says importers share some responsibility for the recent recalls of toys found to contain excessive levels of lead paint.

Lu Shumin said Wednesday it is unfair to blame Chinese companies alone for the recall of 700,000 Chinese-made toys by Mattel Inc. He called for more international co-operation between producers in China and importers in other parts of the world to catch potential health hazards.

"The Chinese toy manufacturers, most of them, are doing business with these foreign importers," he said after a meeting with Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald.

"They make toys according to the foreign importers requests, according to their standard. So I think it is a mutual responsibility."

On Tuesday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission in the United States, in co-operation with Mattel, announced it is recalling about 700,000 Chinese-made toys that have excessive amounts of lead paint.

The recall covers 675,000 units of various Barbie accessory toys that were manufactured between Sept. 30, 2006, and Aug. 20, 2007.

The action also involves 8,900 different toys involving Big Big World 6-in-1 Bongo Band toys from the company's Fisher-Price brand.

Those products were sold from July 2007 through August 2007.

In total, there are 25,500 toys affected by the recall in Canada, including seven Barbie-branded toys.

Lu said the Chinese government takes its responsibility seriously.

"If we find out this is the responsibility of the producers, the producers will have to be dealt (with) according to law," he said.

Lu said the majority of products exported by his country are safe, adding that exports are growing this year at a rate of 17 per cent.

"I want to point out, the overwhelming majority of the Chinese produced products are high quality and safe," he said. "And if you take these recalled products, it's only a tiny, tiny part of the total of Chinese exports."

He said China has taken steps to improve quality control, including a tougher inspection system for food products.

Lu noted that companies in other parts of the world often recall products because of potential safety hazards, including automobile manufacturers.

"This shouldn't be made a big fuss," he said. "Because the quality control is not only a problem, is not something for China alone. Every country has it and no country in the world can say their products is 100 per cent up to the standard and 100 per cent safe."

Among the three Fisher-Price toys recalled globally are two Fisher-Price Geotrax toys that were sold in Canada and one "It's a Big Big World" toy sold exclusively in the U.S.

The announcement marks Mattel's third major recall of Chinese-made toys because of lead paint in a matter of a month.

Mattel's last recall, announced on Aug. 14, covered about 19 million toys worldwide.

They included Chinese-made toys that either had excessive amounts of lead paint or had small magnets that could easily be swallowed by children.

Lead can cause brain damage when ingested by young children. Under current regulations, children's products found to have more than .06 per cent lead accessible to users are subject to a recall.

With more than 80 per cent of toys sold worldwide made in China, toy sellers are nervous that shoppers will shy away from their products in this year's critical holiday season.

Late last month, Toys "R" Us announced it was recalling thousands of art sets made in China due to excessive levels of lead in some black watercolour paints.

Source: Canadian Press

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