Reform should follow toy recalls
Tuesday's recall by Mattel of more than 9 million Chinese-made toys is the latest in a series of product-safety jolts making Americans question our trade relationship with the world's most populous nation.
While it's not a reason to ban the phrase "made in China" from store shelves, U.S. consumers should be more aware of safety concerns when buying toys, food or other products from China. And U.S. firms that sell Chinese products have a special responsibility to test and ensure quality.
But more broadly, greater international pressure is needed for China to get its act together as a responsible, modern industrial power. Far more than children's toys are at stake.
This week's recall involves some 9.3 million toys with tiny magnets that could be swallowed, plus others that contain lead paint. It follows several other recalls of Chinese-made toys this year, including some 1 million preschooler toys from Mattel's Fisher-Price, also recalled for lead paint two weeks ago. Earlier, consumers dealt with tainted pet food, toothpaste and other products; cough syrup from China killed several people in Panama earlier this year.
The toy recalls have some Americans thinking about finding "Made in U.S.A." alternatives - Cleveland-based DuneCraft sent out a release Wednesday touting increased demand for its science/nature toys, and noting that quality control is better with U.S.-made products. But China produces more than 80 percent of the world's toys, and with this year's Christmas toys already in the pipeline, it will be all but impossible to avoid Chinese goods.
Mattel had quality checks and tests in place, but they weren't enough to overcome corruption in the Chinese system and its lack of product safety standards.
Absent worldwide pressure, the prospects for rapid reform in China are not good. "The food and drug safety situation is not something we can be optimistic about," Yan Jiangying, a spokeswoman for China's food and drug agency, warned last month.
Her former boss was executed after substandard medicines led to several deaths, but the charges against him were for bribery. Top leaders continue to deny that there's a widespread problem with shoddy products.
The real problem is that the current Chinese government is more interested in sustaining double-digit growth to appease its own population than in adopting Western-style quality-control and cooperation, Peter Morici, former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission, wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune recently. It's up to America and other major economies to demand changes and make sure that China stops toying with the rest of the world's health and safety.
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