China has agreed to provide the European Union with detailed
quarterly reports to prove it is dealing with complaints about
potentially dangerous consumer product exports.
Europe, the country's top export market, has been rattled by a
series of defective product alerts that have strained consumer
confidence.
Visiting European Union Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena
Kuneva yesterday urged China to take stronger action against
companies making defective or unsafe products.
The commissioner's talks with Chinese officials in recent days
have also covered food safety.
China has taken steps to restore international confidence in its
products by closing in on suppliers of substandard food and other
products, the General Administration of Quality Supervision,
Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has said.
However, Kuneva said more needs to be done and that even a 1
percent product defect rate was not good enough.
"All goods coming onto the European market will be treated the
same," she said.
About half of the defective goods exported to Europe originated
from China, the commissioner said.
Kuneva said she had had a "frank and constructive" dialogue with
Chinese authorities, including AQSIQ Minister Li Chiangjiang.
The EU wants China's first report on "prevention and follow-up
actions" to European alerts about unsafe exports by October, ahead
of a meeting the following month between EU President Jose Manuel
Barroso and Premier Wen Jiabao.
The EU said Chinese authorities had privileged access to its
RAPEX rapid alert system, enabling them to track the source of a
problematic product through the supply chain.
A 2006 agreement between the two sides stated that China would
provide quarterly progress reports on the results of its
investigations into defective product alerts.
However, the two reports issued so far have not been up to
standard, Kuneva said.
"The first report was very poor in respect of tracking down. The
second was better but still not sufficient," she said.
Wang Xin, the director of the supervision and inspection
department of the AQISQ said that although China had already handed
reports over to the EU, it would "streamline" the process to make
them more standardized and detailed.
Li previously said no country in the world could guarantee 100
percent food safety, though China would "squarely face the problems
and enhance supervision, especially over small food processing
plants".
(China Daily July 25, 2007)
