China's toy story turns nasty after new
recall
ALASTAIR JAMIESON CONSUMER AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
WHEN Zhang Shuhong hanged himself from the rafters of his factory, he had no
idea his problems were but a small part of an international safety scare
which has prompted a trade war across three continents.
Mr Zhang thought his suicide, three weeks ago, would bring an end to the
problems of his company, Lee Dur, which made millions of dolls for the
United States toy giant, Mattel. It faced a huge compensation demand from
Mattel, which said a million of Lee Dur's Sesame Street figures had too much
lead in their paint.
But Mattel believes the problem is much wider, and yesterday issued its
third major product recall - this time involving 800,000 toys, including
675,000 accessories for one of the company's biggest sellers, Barbie.
Mattel now faces a crisis in the crucial run-up to Christmas, and its shares
fell almost three per cent in early trading yesterday. But the real loser
remains China, which says its manufacturers are being unfairly blamed as
part of an underhand trade war by Europe and the United States.
The country's health minister accused the west of scaremongering and
described the safety fears over Chinese products as a sickness in itself. "I
must remind some friends that we are certainly extremely sensitive towards
this problem, but over-sensitivity caused by only seeing part of the
picture, in medical terms, is called an allergy," said Chen Zhu, who is a
Paris-trained scientist. "I want to tell everyone that they can have
confidence in the quality of Chinese products and food safety. I also want
to explicitly say that we support media supervision over health work."
The EU last night ruled out a ban on Chinese imports, and said it was more
inclined to punish western manufacturers for failing to take sufficient
precautions to prevent faulty products reaching the shelves.
Jim Murray, the head of the EU's European Consumers Organisation, said:
"Clearly there are manufacturing problems in China, but the responsibility
lies with the client, the company in Europe which has ordered the products.
Member states which issue permits to these companies and fail to act or
prevent unsafe products from reaching the shelves must also be punished by
the European Commission."
He added: "It is right that officials should go to China and try to force
them to improve their standards. But at the end of the day, it is the
companies such as Mattel, importers and retailers who are ultimately based
in Europe, which must be held accountable in the first place."
But elsewhere, the EU is being less diplomatic. Earlier this year, trade
commissioner Peter Mandelson said China's massive £115 billion trade surplus
with the EU was unsustainable and accused his Chinese counterpart of
creating unjustifiable barriers to imports from Europe.
Mr Mandelson said China was doing nothing to rein in rampant counterfeiting
that was costing European business hundreds of millions of euros and used
"indefensible barriers" such as strict licensing laws and laws forcing
foreign companies to create joint ventures with local partners.
China insists it is as open to EU firms as the EU is to Chinese ones. But it
faces an uphill struggle to convince western firms, and shoppers, that it
means business when it comes to safety inspections. The "made in China"
label has never had less value.
The string of disasters this year began with pet food containing chemicals
that killed dogs and cats across the US and reached toys when Thomas the
Tank Engine sets were recalled because of lead paint in June.
Among the biggest concerns is the chain of contractors and sub-contractors
behind China's industrial boom. Mr Zhang had been let down by one of his
suppliers, which made the paint for his toys.
According to his workers, Mr Zhang sold off enough machinery to give
employees their back pay before taking his own life at the factory in
Guangdong province. But there are countless other manufacturers still
producing toys for the western market. Seventy per cent of the world's toys
are made in the area, most of them through a network of outsourced
companies.
Most observers believe Mattel is simply being more honest than other firms
when it comes to recalling products sourced from Guangdong, and that
problems such as lead-heavy paint are likely to crop up elsewhere. Figures
obtained by The Scotsman show the number of product recalls in Britain has
jumped 16 per cent so far this year, already reaching 102 compared to 131
for the whole of 2006.
Since the Chinese toy scare first broke, the Trading Standards Institute (TSI)
has called on the government to scrap the European "CE" kitemark on products
such as toys until better testing procedures are in place.
Bryan Lewin, the chairman of TSI, said: "The recent safety alerts remind us
of the fact that there is room for improvement in our monitoring of products
which are either made here or are imported into the UK from abroad,
particularly from the burgeoning Far Eastern markets."
The CE mark is commonly interpreted as a declaration that a product meets
strict European safety standards but, in the case of toys and electrical
equipment, it is actually a self-declaration of safety by the Chinese
manufacturers. Other consumer products, including gas appliances and
personal protection equipment, can only carry the CE mark after being tested
or accredited by an independent organisation.
Worringly for parents buying toys this Christmas, there is no central
database for product recalls or any formal system for sharing the results of
product testing. A toy on sale in Aberdeen might not be removed from the
shelf, even if a trading standards test in Edinburgh deemed it too dangerous
to be sold in the capital.
Although most local councils proactively test toys on sale in their area,
most rely on calls from concerned shoppers.
Councillor Robert Aldridge, the environment leader for City of Edinburgh
Council, said: "Our trading-standards team carry out test purchases on toys
for sale in Edinburgh. A number of these toys will then go on to our
analytical services division where testing is carried out to assess their
safety. I would encourage anyone who is concerned about toys in their
possession to contact our trading-standards team."
Robert Eckert, chairman and chief executive of California-based Mattel,
warned last month that there may be more recalls as the company stepped up
investigations into Chinese factories.
Yesterday, he said: "As a result of our ongoing investigation, we discovered
additional affected products. Consequently, several sub-contractors are no
longer manufacturing Mattel toys. We apologise again to everyone affected
and promise that we will continue to focus on ensuring the safety and
quality of our toys."
DANGEROUS GOODS SHIPPED AROUND THE WORLD
THE 'Made in China' crisis began in April when dogs and cats in the US began
to die from pet food contaminated with melamine.
Since then, toothpaste in Panama has been found to have contained poisonous
diethylene glycol in instead of harmless but more expensive glycerin.
Thomas the Tank Engine sets were recalled due to excess lead in paint, while
18 million Mattel toys were recalled because of batteries that could come
loose, causing a choking hazard.
In New Zealand, scientists reported that some clothes imported from China
had dangerous levels of formaldehyde.
The latest recall involves Chinese-made Barbie accessories that may contain
excessive amounts of lead paint. More than 2,500 were on sale in Britain.
A Mattel spokeswoman said it was working in co-operation with the UK Trading
Standards, US Consumer Product Safety Commission. It urged consumers to
contact Mattel UK on 0808 234 8437, or visit
www.service.mattel.com/uk
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1420022007