Faulty Chinese Exports: Beginning Of A Trade War?

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Faulty Chinese Exports Could Very Well Trigger The Beginning Of A Trade War

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uploaded by Barry ORegan

Opinion
Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor

With the Flood of domestic products laced with everything from lead to formaldehyde sold to North American and Global consumers, it's refreshing to know that China says its exports are of high standard compared with what is sold at home.

Almost 20% of products made for domestic consumption are officially rated as substandard.

My Final Thought

Perhaps this is a trade war China should lose, and lose badly when it states their Chinese made products Western Consumers (Rate as Substandard) buy is up to their Chinese High Quality Standard, one can only guess how toxic their products are for domestic use that the Chinese Government rate as substandard.

This shows China cares not for the health and safety of it's citizens when clothing laced with formaldehyde and toothpaste laced with dangerous contaminates is used by Chinese Women, Men and Children.

While rest assured China's bureaucrats most undoubtably enjoy the "Finer things in Life" fine clothes from such fashionable far away places as Paris, Cars from Germany and the USA and wines and liquors from  Europe and USA. Items an ordinary Chinese citizen can only view from a High Class store window or in Movies.

FOSHAN,CHINA -When Liu Jie walked into the toy factory where he worked, he had little idea that what he found would put him at the centre of an international safety scare and might yet mark the beginning of a trade war across three continents.

Hanging from the rafters was the body of his boss, Cheung Shu-hung.

Mr. Cheung, a Hong Kong resident who was unmarried, was one of hundreds of Chinese entrepreneurs trying to get rich from Western children's love affair with plastic.

Many Chinese workers have lost their jobs following Mattel's global recall of toys. It has been a tough year for Chinese exports, with a contaminated pet food scare, toothpaste found to have poisonous diethylene glycol and accusations this week that dangerous levels of formaldehyde were found in adults' and children's clothing.View Larger Image View Larger Image

Many Chinese workers have lost their jobs following Mattel's global recall of toys. It has been a tough year for Chinese exports, with a contaminated pet food scare, toothpaste found to have poisonous diethylene glycol and accusations this week that dangerous levels of formaldehyde were found in adults' and children's clothing.

His firm, Lee Der, churned out dolls by the shipload for Mattel, the toy giant behind Barbie, Polly Pocket and the Fisher-Price label.

But when Mattel said one million of his Sesame Street figures had too much lead in their paint and demanded compensation, the bottom fell out of his business.

Although Mattel did not stop the contract, the Chinese authorities wanted to show they could be as tough as the Americans and Europeans when it came to safety standards and withdrew his export licence. According to his workers, Mr. Cheung sold off enough machinery to give his employees their back pay, then hanged himself.

Yesterday morning, Mr. Liu, an assembly line manager, left the factory for the last time, following 4,000 others who have lost their jobs in the past week.

Both Lee Der and Mr. Cheung were virtually unknown outside the grimy industrial city of Foshan, in Guangdong province on the Chinese mainland north of Hong Kong -- and certainly to the parents who bought Mattel products for their children.

The California-based Mattel is more open than many other companies, but it is reluctant to reveal details of the factories in industrial parks all over southern China that make its products.

Seventy per cent of the world's toys are manufactured in Guangdong. Nearly all are made by outsourcing companies on a scale and at a price no other country can match.

The workers' pay and conditions give some idea of how goods can be produced so cheaply. In a Lee Der dormitory block, workers lived up to 14 to a room in rickety bunk beds. One was decorated with Sesame Street packaging.

Mr. Cheung was a "good boss, with a good relationship with his workers," said an electrician. "He gave us a day off each week."

Shop-floor salaries for the six-day week of 10-hour days were $125 to $190 a month, he said, well above the local minimum wage.

Mattel has a reputation for being punctilious about quality control, but the fate of its toys shows how limited big companies' scrutiny can be.

The electrician said the real culprit was a factory down the road.

"It was the paint, and the paint company," he said.

Mr. Cheung bought his paint from another Foshan company, Dongxing New Energy, which workers said was owned by his best friend, Liang Jiacheng. But Mr. Liang in turn sourced his raw materials from a third firm, Zhongxin, based in the nearby city of Dongguan.

Zhongxin is accused of diluting paint powder with cheaper, lower-quality ingredients containing lead. Seven of its managers are now reported to be on the run.

The ever-growing chain of contractors and subcontractors behind China's industrial boom is now causing concern for many Western firms.

This year's "Made in China" crisis began in March when pets, mainly cats, in North America began to die from pet food that had been contaminated with melamine. Since then, there have been a series of other scares.

Toothpaste in Panama was found to have poisonous diethylene glycol from China mixed in instead of harmless but more expensive glycerine.

In the toy sector, Thomas the Tank Engine sets were recalled because of excess lead in paint, along with the Sarges toy cars and Sesame Street figures.

This week, scientists in New Zealand said they had found dangerous levels of formaldehyde in adults' and children's clothes imported from China.

China says its exports are of high standard compared with what is sold at home. Almost 20% of products made for domestic consumption are officially rated as substandard.

The Chinese government says its manufacturers are being vilified because North America and Europe do not like their trade deficits with it. It has exchanged angry threats of retaliation with foreign politicians.

But Chinese officials sometimes admit their inspectors have difficulty keeping up with the speed and scale of change.

One problem is persuading them how seriously Western companies take safety issues. While no Western children are reported to have been harmed, in China itself, not only are the workers making the toys repeatedly exposed to lead, but pollution and the lack of clean water mean many children daily ingest high levels of heavy metals.

This is little consolation to Mattel, which in the face of U.S. lawsuits has announced measures to ensure every batch of paint is tested, and then every batch of toys tested again.

It is also little consolation to Lee Der's former workers. They may find new jobs -- in Guangdong companies close and open all the time, and China is actually suffering a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labour.

The empty Lee Der factories are plastered with recruitment notices. But the conditions they find may be worse than those at Lee Der.

A manager who was one of the last people to speak to Mr. Cheung said he had lost everything.

"He called me to say not to panic," he said. "He said he would give me money to set myself up."

Nearby, a pile of Fisher Price cardboard packaging lay in the rain. Its markings made no mention of Lee Der, but said, "Animal Adventure Playpacks. Destination -- Phoenix. Country of Origin: China."