China on Thursday welcomed New Zealand's impartial test results
on its clothing exports and expressed appreciation for its
publicizing of the results.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said the test
results showed clothes made in China are of liable quality. The
Chinese government has attached great importance to the issue of
product quality and made a series of policies to step up
supervision over product quality and food safety, he said.
On Tuesday, the General Manager of the New Zealand Ministry of
Consumer Affairs Liz MacPherson informed China's commerce counselor
Liu Linlin that clothes made in China are safe after testing them
for formaldehyde.
MacPherson said the ministry collected 100 samples of clothing
and asked independent labs to carry out the tests. Of all the
samples, 84 percent were manufactured in China, seven percent in
New Zealand and nine percent in other countries. The proportions
were decided on the basis of the market share of the clothes in New
Zealand, she said.
Excluding one overlapping sample, 97 samples met the
international standard by having a formaldehyde concentration of
far less than 200 ppm. The formaldehyde concentration in 2 samples,
one from China, reached 250 ppm but was reduced to 54 ppm by
washing, so these two kinds of clothes should be labeled with
warnings like "pre-wash before use", according to the test
results.
MacPherson said the results proved that clothes made in China
are safe and New Zealand would publicize the results to clarify the
facts.
She also said children's pajama exports from China were safe and
reminded parents in New Zealand to read the labels carefully before
buying and using them.
In August, New Zealand launched an investigation into children's
pajamas made in China after two complaints involving children who
suffered burns while wearing the pajamas. The test results from an
independent laboratory released by New Zealand's Commerce
Commission proved that the pajamas produced in China were up to
safety standards.
Customs statistics showed China exported 290-million-dollar
worth of clothes to New Zealand in 2006, taking up 70.5 percent of
the local market share. From January to August this year, the
clothes China exported to New Zealand valued US$240 million,
accounting for 72.5 percent of the market share.
(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)
