Most of the made-in-China products are absolutely safe, and the
steady increase in exports despite the recent widespread criticism
reflects their safety standards, a Ministry of Commerce official
said yesterday.
China's exports rose 27.5 percent in the first half of the year
to US$546.7 billion, said Vice-Minister of Commerce Gao
Hucheng.
The export of some products including food, drugs and toys,
which have been criticized for their standards, have increased,
too. The export of food products was up 22.2 percent, drugs 41
percent and toys 27.7 percent, according to Ministry of Commerce
figures.
The increase shows "the majority of importers, retailers and
consumers (across the world) are reasonable," Gao said. The
"problem products" comprise a miniscule percentage of the overall
exports from China.
For instance, toothpaste accounted for just US$80 million of the
total export of US$970 billion in 2006. In fact, the value of the
toothpaste brand, allegedly containing diethylene glycolis,
exported to the US was only US$3.3 million.
Hence, doubting the quality of all made-in-China products is not
a "scientific" way of looking at things, said Gao, citing a figure
released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare that
showed 99.42 percent of food products from China to Japan were
safe, compared to the 98.69 percent of those from the US and 99.38
percent from the European Union.
The quality of Chinese products has improved greatly in recent
years, he said. For instance, about 94 percent of the vegetables
grown in the country passed the pesticide residue tests in the
first half of 2007, 12 percentage points more than in 2003.
Gao gave an assurance that the overall quality of exports is
safe, and reminded domestic enterprises that improving the quality
further is the only way of winning over the international
market.
The problems relating to product quality and food safety are
hard to avoid totally because some enterprises are not aware of
their social responsibility, Gao said. The problem of product
safety is much of their doing.
Government bodies are trying to minimize the effect of negative
reports, and 429 enterprises have already been punished. Some other
companies have been told to stop exporting their products.
Gao called for international cooperation to deal with food
safety problems. "Rebuking each other is not going to solve the
problem. Strengthening international cooperation is the only
effective way to solve the problem."
The Ministry of Commerce suggested cooperation with APEC members
as early as in 2005, and helped set up the APEC food safety
cooperation forum with Australia in 2006.
Gao suggested improving legal and law enforcement through
international cooperation, as well as setting up of an emergency
system to deal with quality problems.
(China Daily August 3, 2007)
