EU: China To File Report On Product-Safety Steps

The European Union's top product safety official said Tuesday China has agreed to submit to the E.U. Commission by October a report on actions taken against Chinese makers of unsafe goods.

Meglena Kuneva, the E.U.'s commissioner for consumer affairs, said China also reaffirmed its commitment to submit such reports quarterly, a schedule that the E.U. and China had previously agreed upon. "The political context, in which this (October) report is put, is very important, because in November we expect a high-level meeting between European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and China's Premier (Wen Jiabao)," she said during a press conference in Beijing. She said getting a commitment from China to make regular reports on actions taken against makers of unsafe goods has been one of the main results of her visit to the country. She arrived in China Sunday and leaves Thursday. Kuneva said the E.U. has only received two such reports from China, which detailed the steps taken after the E.U. notified the country about unsafe goods. She said the first report was poor, and the second was better but still not sufficient. The E.U. and China signed a memorandum of understanding in January last year to work more closely on product safety. Starting May 2006, the E.U. made information about dangerous Chinese goods available to China to help it take steps against manufacturers of unsafe goods. The information is on Rapex, the E.U.'s alert system on dangerous consumer goods. Possible Chinese steps include export bans on makers of unsafe goods, said Annukka Ojala, policy coordinator for product and service safety at the E.U.'s consumer affairs commission. Ojala said the first report for the September-November period was scarce on action taken, but the second report, for the January-early July period, included ten times the amount of action taken by Chinese authorities. Kuneva said: "I have received political commitments at the highest levels. And I will watch how these political commitments will be translated into practice." During her visit in Beijing, Kuneva has met Li Changjiang, head of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and State Administration of Industry & Commerce Minister Zhou Bohua. Her visit to China comes as concerns over the safety of Chinese exports grow, particularly in the U.S. For instance, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued 18 recall notices this year for more than 6.7 million pieces of jewelry designed for children and teenagers because of dangerous levels of lead, with almost all of the items made in China. In 2006, there were 10 lead-related recall notices.