Mattel says sorry to 'the Chinese people' in toy row
Andrew Clark in New York
Friday September 21, 2007
business.guardian.co.uk
Guardian Unlimited
The world's biggest toy maker, Mattel, has apologised to senior officials in Beijing for blaming Chinese suppliers over a spate of recalls of substandard products.
In an attempt to mend strained relations, Mattel admitted that in the "vast majority" of cases, flaws in its own designs were responsible for high levels of lead paint and loose magnets which prompted safety scares.
More than 20m Mattel toys have been recalled in recent months including certain Barbie dolls, Polly Pocket playsets and Fisher Price characters such as Dora the Explorer.
Mattel's vice president for worldwide operations, Thomas Debrowski, suggested his company had overreacted by recalling far too many.
"Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys," Mr Debrowski told China's quality watchdog chief, Li Changjiang, at a meeting in Beijing.
Mr Debrowski said he recognised Mattel's actions had damaged the reputation of Chinese goods. He continued: "It's important for everyone to understand that the vast majority of those products that we recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel's design, not through a manufacturing flaw in Chinese manufacturers."
Some 17.4m toys have been recalled because of loose magnets which pose a swallowing hazard to children, while 2.2m had impermissible levels of lead. The Chinese government has made its displeasure clear: Mr Li described Mattel's admission as "unacceptable", adding: "You cannot recall 10,000 products because just one is substandard."
The affair prompted widespread attacks in both America and Europe on the standard of Chinese production. A senior Labour MEP this week demanded the European commission ban Chinese toys unless their quality could be guaranteed.
"I am asking the commission to take tough action and to seriously threaten the Chinese with a ban on toy imports if they cannot demonstrate that they are meeting EU toy safety standards," said Arlene McCarthy, chair of the European parliament's consumer protection committee. |
