The American product safety system usually gives consumers a sense of security when they go to the marketplace. But that system is in danger of breaking down under a flood of imports mainly, but not only, from China. Recent moves by Congress and the administration rightly seek to address this challenge to public health and safety.
Scandals involving dog food, toothpaste and cough syrup made with potentially fatal and falsely labeled Chinese products, lead paint on toys, and alleged defects in automobile tires and exploding cell-phone batteries have alerted consumer safety experts around the world to the threat of dangerous imports. European Union consumer protection officials are meeting in Beijing this week with their Chinese counterparts. U.S. officials are slated to visit China next week to discuss the same topic: how China intends to prevent recurrences.
The scandals exposed flaws in China's regulation of exports and holes in import controls in many nations. On Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization jointly recommend all nations "fill safety gaps" in their import oversight, Food Production Daily reported.
The two U.N. bodies said that they had investigated up to 200 unsafe food import incidents a month in the past year. "Such food safety incidents are often caused by lack of knowledge of food safety requirements and of their implications, or by the illegal and fraudulent use of ingredients including unauthorized food additives or veterinary drugs," they said.
Also on Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow announced the formation of a cabinet-level "Working Group on Import Safety," ordered by President Bush to report within 60 days on recommendations to improve the safety of food and other imports. Mr. Snow said the move was "not a slap at China," which has complained at being singled out and has placed bans on American imports in a clear tit-for-tat response. But "of all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, China presents the most diverse set of challenges" to the Food and Drug Administration, its deputy commissioner for international programs, Dr. Murray Lumpkin, told the Senate Commerce Committee on Monday.
Chinese officials insist that 99 percent of the goods China exports meet quality standards, and say foreign media are exaggerating the extent of the problem, The New York Times reported.
But on Monday, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, visiting Beijing, rightly said even if only one percent of Chinese consumer exports prove unsafe, "this is still dangerous," according to Forbes Online.
China can only achieve a reputation for reliable consumer products by participating much more actively than it has in international efforts to prevent traffic in unsafe products. Until then, this nation and others absolutely must do what they can to protect their citizens against unsafe imports.
Scandals involving dog food, toothpaste and cough syrup made with potentially fatal and falsely labeled Chinese products, lead paint on toys, and alleged defects in automobile tires and exploding cell-phone batteries have alerted consumer safety experts around the world to the threat of dangerous imports. European Union consumer protection officials are meeting in Beijing this week with their Chinese counterparts. U.S. officials are slated to visit China next week to discuss the same topic: how China intends to prevent recurrences.
The scandals exposed flaws in China's regulation of exports and holes in import controls in many nations. On Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization jointly recommend all nations "fill safety gaps" in their import oversight, Food Production Daily reported.
The two U.N. bodies said that they had investigated up to 200 unsafe food import incidents a month in the past year. "Such food safety incidents are often caused by lack of knowledge of food safety requirements and of their implications, or by the illegal and fraudulent use of ingredients including unauthorized food additives or veterinary drugs," they said.
Also on Monday, White House spokesman Tony Snow announced the formation of a cabinet-level "Working Group on Import Safety," ordered by President Bush to report within 60 days on recommendations to improve the safety of food and other imports. Mr. Snow said the move was "not a slap at China," which has complained at being singled out and has placed bans on American imports in a clear tit-for-tat response. But "of all the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, China presents the most diverse set of challenges" to the Food and Drug Administration, its deputy commissioner for international programs, Dr. Murray Lumpkin, told the Senate Commerce Committee on Monday.
Chinese officials insist that 99 percent of the goods China exports meet quality standards, and say foreign media are exaggerating the extent of the problem, The New York Times reported.
But on Monday, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Consumer Protection, Meglena Kuneva, visiting Beijing, rightly said even if only one percent of Chinese consumer exports prove unsafe, "this is still dangerous," according to Forbes Online.
China can only achieve a reputation for reliable consumer products by participating much more actively than it has in international efforts to prevent traffic in unsafe products. Until then, this nation and others absolutely must do what they can to protect their citizens against unsafe imports.
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