A new regulation on the recall of faulty cars and other automobiles will be unveiled in the New Year, a senior quality supervision official said yesterday.

The regulation will incorporate feedback from customers and automakers to a draft version of the regulation published in October.

"Around 99 percent of customers warmly applauded the recall regulation," said Liu Zhaobin, director of the Regulation Department under the State General Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection and Quarantine.

Most auto makers agreed that the new regulation will further standardize China's auto industry, he said.

The official, who drafted the recall regulation, said a team of experts had been discussing and supervising the composition of the regulation on recalling faulty automobiles over the past 10 months.

Chinese consumers have long complained that global automobile giants such as Daimler-Chrysler and Honda have excluded China when recalling defective products from overseas markets.

The major reason why Chinese consumers are treated differently from foreign counterparts is that China has no laws or regulations related to the recall of defective vehicles.

Jia Xinguang, a senior analyst at the China Automobile Industry Consulting and Development Corp, said: "All faulty vehicles, irrespective of whether they are imported or manufactured locally, must be recalled by auto makers for the sake of consumers."

Jia said it was imperative to develop a recall system and local auto makers should be treated equally if they had similar problems.

Wang Chuming, a lawyer at Beijing-based law firm GH and Partners, said the regulations will help eliminate potential dangers in automobiles, but the regulations still needed improving.

(China Daily December 24, 2002)