CHINA: Chinese unfazed by new U.S. toy scare, as Beijing warns of panic over global recall of Mattel toys

At one of the largest toy department stores in the Chinese capital Beijing, local vendors and shoppers seemed unaffected by news of a massive global toy recall caused by U.S. concerns over the safety of toys made in China. In the latest scare, Mattel Inc. said it was recalling 1.5 million Fisher-Price toys globally because their paint could contain too much lead. Mattel said the toys, which include characters like Elmo and Big Bird, were made by a contract manufacturer in China using non-approved paint pigment containing lead. A senior Chinese official has told visiting U.S. officials the massive toy recall threatened to intensify consumer worry about the "made in China" brand. Majority of the toys sold at the Tianyi department store are Chinese brands but a few toy vendors who were selling toys made by Mattel said they had confidence in the product safety of their toys despite the global recall. "First of all, when they produce these toys in China, the quality standards required of them are in line with international standards. These standards are the same. They come to produce their toys in China because basically the cost of production is lower here. This is the only difference," said toy vendor Mr. Li, who added he was not informed of the Fisher-Price toy recall. "I feel that we do not know of the differences between the quality standards of different countries. And we do not know whether the testing methods are different between countries. For example, a while ago, there was some news that there were some quality problems with the production of Barbie products in China. But now, these problems have all been sorted out," said toy vendor Miss Zhang, who has been selling Barbie dolls for the last five years. " I do not worry so much, if the toy looks fun for my child, it is okay. My child is already so big, he is not going to put the toy in his mouth, he is just going to play with it. I am not going to worry too much about this aspect," said Mdm Zhang, who came to buy toys for her four-year-old son. The Chinese product quality watchdog had told the visiting U.S. delegation that the country was tackling food and drug safety after a string of health scares have shaken consumer confidence. "We won't avoid problems, but we disapprove of ignoring the facts and of alarmism that takes isolated things for the whole, and we oppose trade protection and discrimination," said Wei Chuanzhong, a deputy chief of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to the official Xinhua news agency. Wei said disagreements between countries over product quality and food safety should be settled through dialogue, negotiation, investigation and seeking out the facts. His words appeared unlikely to shift Washington from tougher scrutiny of Chinese-made goods, especially after toys joined a growing list of problem products. The United States stepped up inspections of imports from China after a chemical additive in pet food caused the death of some pets there this spring. Since then, poisonous ingredients have been found in Chinese exports of toys, toothpaste and fish, while the deaths of patients in Panama was blamed on improperly labelled Chinese chemicals that were mixed into cough syrup. Beijing has complained that it is the victim of biased news reports that have grossly overstated the depth of the quality problem and are being used to stoke protectionist demands. Lead paint has been linked to health problems in children, including learning disabilities and permanent brain damage, so the recall is likely to increase worries over the safety of Chinese products. In recent years, about 66 percent of all U.S. product recalls have been of imported goods, with a majority of those products made in China, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Earlier this year, melamine, a chemical used in plastics and fertilizers, surfaced in pet food from China, killing animals and prompting wide recalls.

ITN Source | August 3, 2007

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