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Carol
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« on: August 25, 2008, 05:53:31 AM » |
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aVzomUtkEORg&refer=asiaU.S. to Assign Safety Inspectors to Chinese Cities in October
By Stephen Engle and John Liu
Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will station inspectors in three Chinese cities to scrutinize exports to the world's largest economy, responding to concerns over the safety of China-produced food, toys and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Up to 15 inspectors will be assigned to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from October, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt said in an interview. China agreed in December 2007 to let the Food and Drug Administration establish China offices, among the agreements reached in its Strategic Economic Dialogue with the U.S.
China's government ``worked hard'' at improving safety, Leavitt said in Beijing. ``I don't think they've got the problem completely solved, but it was clear to them that the made-in- China brand was affected by product quality problems and they moved aggressively to begin making progress.''
Concern over the safety of Chinese products last year shifted the focus of the twice-annual U.S.-China strategic dialogue away from the pace of the yuan's gains. President George W. [edited] in June boosted the FDA's budget by $275 million for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 to finance inspections of overseas plants that produce food and medicine for export.
Food-safety problems sparked a drop in exports to Japan and the U.S. this year. Contaminated consumer exports, including pesticide-laced frozen dumplings in Japan and tainted Heparin blood thinner in the U.S. this year have sparked international furor over the safety of Chinese-made products.
Mattel, Menu Foods
Mattel Inc., the world's biggest toymaker, recalled 21 million Chinese-made products in 2007. The Segundo, California- based company incurred $110 million in recall, legal, advertising and testing costs last year, after taking back Sesame Street vehicles painted with lead-tainted paint and Polly Pocket dolls with magnets that may detach and be swallowed by children.
Menu Foods Ltd., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and five other companies sued by consumers last year for selling tainted pet food reached a $24 million settlement in May with plaintiffs.
A U.S. company, ChemNutra Inc., and two Chinese businesses were in February charged by a federal grand jury in connection with the import of tainted pet food ingredients that may have killed thousands of cats and dogs in 2007. The dog and cat foods contained melamine-tainted wheat gluten that if ingested can cause kidney failure and death.
In February, Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. and two Chinese businesses were charged by a Kansas City federal grand jury with illegally importing 800 metric tons of wheat gluten poisoned with melamine. ChemNutra has denied any deliberate wrongdoing.
``I don't think there is any question'' that Chinese food and drug products are safer as compared to last year, Leavitt said. ``Will there be problems in the future? Yes. Will there be as many of them? I don't think so.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Engle in Beijing at sengle1@bloomberg.net; John Liu in Beijing at jliu42@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 24, 2008 18:45 EDT
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead
United we stand Divided we fall....
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YesBiscuit!
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« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2008, 06:21:48 AM » |
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More inspectors is a good thing. I only hope these aren't being taken away from our domestic inspectors. We need more of those too - lots more!
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JJ
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« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2008, 05:44:23 PM » |
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Hopefully these inspectors will stop anything from being sent on to this country. We need to have the things also inspected here with some kind of marking put on what is being sent out so that a different part of the shipment will get tested so no one anywhere pulls a fast one and puts a good, will sail thru any inspection out and hide stuff that should be not sent. Money can pay off a lot of things and people to look the other way......
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'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
But how to dance in the rain.'
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3catkidneyfailure
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« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2008, 09:30:58 PM » |
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What kind of a real dent can 15 inspectors put in inspection of Chinese exports? I'd call this
a token window dressing that accomplishes nothing except costing the U.S. consumer more per
inspection. Maybe we could have gotten the actual inspections of Chinese imports to the U.S. up to
1.15 percent if they'd stayed in the U.S.
I believe some time ago I read some statements on this policy that the intent is to educate, as well,
the nation where these guys are sent. We can't protect our own food supply or adequately police it.
Now we're going to undertake the training of every other nation. Bull-pucky and not even common horse
sense.
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« Last Edit: August 26, 2008, 09:37:38 PM by 3catkidneyfailure »
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petslave
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« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2008, 10:37:59 PM » |
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15 inspectors in 3 cities seems a little on the low side to me. Frankly, I don't see how they could ever police everything made over there. A lot of stuff is made in people's homes, out in the country, instead of in the modern factories they show on websites. We saw this last year during the recalls.
If you google something commonly made over there on alibaba, you may get dozens of hits on "companies" supplying the product. I guess 5 people per city might be able to check on several big manufactuers, like Mattel, so I guess that would be a start.
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JJ
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« Reply #5 on: August 26, 2008, 11:19:31 PM » |
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petslave you just might have hit the nail - to ck the big mfgrs. since all the stuff coming from small farms and homes will not be inspected. This is probably more 'feel good' stuff to make the people refusing to buy MIC because of not knowing what might be lurking in the food, toy or product from there since we only insepect what is it 1% of all imports? If that figure is not correct feel free to post percentage. I'm seeing more things on the shelves made in Pakistan, Turkey, Vietnam so stores seem to be carrying things made there along with MIC too.
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'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
But how to dance in the rain.'
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petslave
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« Reply #7 on: August 27, 2008, 05:54:32 PM » |
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Hmm, was this something put into use for the Olympics? Funny how those kinds of events can bring about changes, even if only temporarily.
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3catkidneyfailure
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« Reply #8 on: August 27, 2008, 05:56:53 PM » |
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I thought I heard we shipped in all our own food supplies for the U.S. Olympic teams.
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JJ
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« Reply #9 on: August 27, 2008, 07:18:33 PM » |
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3cat I thought I had heard that also about all the food was brought in for the event. Just doing that speaks volumes, doesn't it.
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'Life isn't about how to survive the storm,
But how to dance in the rain.'
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petslave
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« Reply #10 on: August 27, 2008, 07:20:23 PM » |
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That's what I would do, ship in my own food! Course all the tourists over there are probably on their own though. And I'm sure other poorer countries may not have brought in food.
The article does mention that it was put in place for the games. But it would be great if they continued to use it for their own people after all the pomp and glory are over. We'll see if they see them as worth the money though.
We need that technology to be used more over here!
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