China Heavily Impacted by Global Rejection

China Heavily Impacted by Global Rejection

Aug. 2007  - China's booming economy could be 
impacted by global rejection of products with made in China labels after a 
host of recalls of unsafe pet food, toothpaste, toys, tires and seafood in 
recent months. 
To bolster public acceptance of Chinese products, the government Wednesday 
declared a four-month "special battle" against poor product quality and 
supervision. 
The war extends to eight kinds of products - drugs, pork, farm products, 
processed food, food in the catering sector, import and export products, 
and other products related to public health such as toys and electric 
wires, the official state news agency Xinhua reports. 
"This is a special battle to protect the safety and interests of the 
general public, as well as a war to safeguard the made-in-China label and 
the country's image," Vice-Premier Wu Yi told a national teleconference in 
Beijing.

 
Wu, appointed head of a Cabinet-level panel on food safety and quality 
last week, called for an integrated quality monitoring network across the 
country, covering product design, raw materials, processing, sales and 
service. 
A sense of quality should be aroused across the whole society, Wu 
emphasized. 
Twenty detailed targets have been set that must be met by the end of this 
year, she said. 
All food producers must be licensed; all pigs must be slaughtered at 
designated places; all agricultural product wholesale markets in cities 
must be monitored; all raw material bases for export products must be 
inspected; and all restaurants and dining halls are now required to check 
safety certifications when they buy raw materials. 
In addition it is now officially forbidden to use five types of pesticides 
on agricultural products, to sell poultry that die of disease, or to add 
harmful additives to food. 
Wu acknowledged that despite progress made in the past few years, the 
country did have some "deep-rooted" food and product quality issues. 
She blamed a large number of small food plants with poor equipment and 
management, excessive amount of drug residues, and the use of fake 
ingredients.

Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, 
Inspection and Quarantine, said authorities should inform the public of 
the progress of the special war by holding joint press conferences at 
least once a month. 
A white paper on the country's food safety issued by the government on 
Friday said the qualification rate of exported Chinese food products has 
been over 99 percent for many years. 
"Yet," the white paper said, "there are still a tiny number of enterprises 
that disregard the law, regulations and standards of China and importing 
countries and, by deception or fraud, avoid supervision by the inspection 
and quarantine authorities, or export food by improper channels." 
Despite safety concerns, the country's fast-rising exports show that 
Chinese products are still popular, Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang 
Chao told a press conference yesterday. 
In the first half of this year, China exported $546.7 billion worth of 
products, up 27.6 percent over the same six month period last year. 
The European Union is China's largest trading partner. In May, 440 
different products from China, ranging from toys to cigarette lighters, 
were reported hazardous by European Union in an annual report. 
In addition to the consumer product safety war, China is planning tough 
new controls on chemicals, explosives and hazardous materials.

 
A proposed law on mandatory company self-supervision and emergency plans 
was submitted today to the Standing Committee of the National People's 
Congress for a third reading. 
Under the draft emergency response law, all companies handling hazardous 
materials will have to hold inspections and draw up emergency plans.
"Coal mines, construction sites, and work units who produce, deal with, 
transport, stockpile and use explosives, combustible and hazardous 
chemicals and radioactive material production should establish detailed 
emergency plans and launch inspections at sites where hazardous materials 
are produced and stored, so as to eliminate possible risks and avoid 
emergencies," the draft law states. 
An earlier version of the emergency response law provided that "news media 
that irregularly report the development and handling of emergencies 
without authorization, or release fraudulent reports" would be handed 
stiff fines. 
That provision was cut from the draft in June after many lawmakers and 
members of the public argued it could be misused by government agencies to 
withhold emergency information. 

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