On August 14, 2007, Mattel, the largest U.S. toy maker, announced that it was recalling nearly 18.2 million Chinese toys around the world because of the "hidden danger of magnets being swallowed by children and excessive lead in paint.
According to the inspection and quarantine people's comments, things are not so simple, was recalled by the two toy factories in Guangdong according to the design of the U.S. toys, materials production of qualified products, was found to be unqualified because of the U.S. toys to change the quality inspection standards.
Is China's production enterprises did not put the quality of good, or the United States businessmen to find excuses deliberately difficult? It's hard to say for sure. We do not rule out the possibility that the U.S. businessmen to take the technical standards again to speak to the "Made in China" difficult. Because in the trade between China and the United States, the use of this technology "killer app" to build trade barriers has long been a means used by the United States. But for more Chinese exporters, should be concerned about the extended significance of this event. After all, China is the largest supplier of toys in the United States, but also the most recalled producers. Data show that last year there were 29 recalls of toys exported from China to the United States. In previous years, almost every week a Chinese-made children's product was recalled by the United States.
China is one of the world's largest toy exporters, our province is a major toy export province. The province's exports of nearly 1 billion U.S. dollars a year leading the country, the industry has more than 1,000 enterprises, 200,000 employees, the output value of the year-on-year increase. From the figures alone, Jiangsu's toy industry is thriving, red-hot. The toy recall seems to be far away from us, the recalled companies are not in Jiangsu, the recalled products are not the province's main production of plush toys.
However, two old adages are worth warning, one is that people do not have far-flung concerns, there must be close to worry; the second is the city gates are on fire, the fish in the pond. If we happen around the "circle of things" without concern or lack of due scrutiny, perhaps not far from being recalled. In fact, as long as the province's toy industry to make some deep analysis, will see the existence of many weaknesses, for example, as a labor-intensive industries, our toys are located in just the end of the international toy industry chain, more than ninety percent rely on OEM, the enterprise generally do not attach importance to independent innovation, sources of information, sales channels, especially the technical standards are dictated by the foreign business. At the same time, the entire industry lacks accumulation and specialization of division of labor, market risk resistance is not strong.
With our enterprises to focus on coping with foreign single formation of a strong contrast is that the United States and other developed countries on the technical threshold of imported products, but the higher the higher, more and more restrictions on the "fine". For example, plush toys have regulations on filler, toy paint lead content standards, hard plastic made of toys can not have sharp edges, plush toys molding shall not use wire, etc., all of which may become the reason for the recall.
We must recognize that export products, including toys, have not reached the level of impeccability. In the face of the foreign pattern of constant renovation of trade barriers, we have both because the quality does not meet the standards of the inspection and quarantine departments to block the door, there are also a few products in foreign countries were seized or returned. Such a lesson, coupled with the Mattel recall, Chinese toy companies will still feel "homework" is very light?
** China's official evaluation of Mattel's third recall of Chinese toys.
September 4, the U.S. Mattel announced that due to excessive lead in paint again recalled 848,000 Chinese toys, to which the Ministry of Commerce attaches great importance to immediately carry out the relevant work, sent a working group to go to Dongguan, Guangdong Province, Shenzhen to conduct on-site investigation. After a preliminary investigation, the recalled toys are also labeled products, exported in the form of processing trade, involving three manufacturers in Guangdong and Shenzhen. At present, the competent authorities are investigating the causes of the quality problems. Once the responsibility is recognized, it will be dealt with according to the law.
Despite the recent recall of Chinese toys, we believe that for more than 8,000 toy manufacturers, this is only an isolated phenomenon of individual enterprises, the quality and safety of Chinese toys is generally trustworthy. Toy products are related to children's health and safety, although no country can achieve zero risk of quality and safety, but even if only one percent, or even one-thousandth of the products have problems, the Chinese side will be taken seriously. For the recall incident involving the responsibility of the Chinese side, the Chinese side will never evade, found the problem immediately corrected.
The Chinese government requires exporters to continuously improve their quality management, and requires that exported products not only comply with China's quality standards, but also with those of the importing countries. Recently, the relevant state departments promulgated the "Children's Toy Recall Management Measures", and the export of toys to increase the supervision of the suspension of the quality of some enterprises of the toy export license, Jiangsu and other major areas of toy exports are being carried out in large-scale enterprise training, and will continue to expand the scope of the training next step. At the same time, we have also established contact with relevant foreign industries, hoping to meet the quality requirements of consumers through *** with efforts. We welcome the media and the majority of consumers to monitor and give advice, but also hope that you can rationally and objectively view and deal with these issues.