China: New quality standards cause toy recall

China's quality chief, Li Changjiang, said on Monday that US importers should take responsibility for losses after another toy recall last week.

The US government last week issued a flurry of recalls affecting more than half a million Chinese-made toys because they may contain unsafe levels of lead. Li said the US is aiming for new quality standards for toys, and this is why many toys produced in recent years have been recalled.

Li Changjiang, Director of GAQSIQ said "The US government is using fresh new standards to inspect our Chinese toy products. The recalled toy products this time were up to previous US standards, that's why they were able to be exported to the US and be sold on the US market. Now the US government has changed their quality standards for toys and they want to lay the responsibility on Chinese toy manufacturers".

The recall was the fourth in less than half year. Chinese makers have seen their image tarnished by a spate of product recalls affecting toys that have sullied the "Made-in-China" brand in the US and other countries. But Li Changjiang said Chinese toy makers are not to be blamed and US importers should take responsibility for losses.

Li said "Chinese toy makers were applying previous US stardard in their production. They have been honest and doing their own job. Now the US changed the standard and I think the US importers should take responsibility for the losses from the recall".

Although this recall is not directly related to Chinese toy factories, Li said the authorities here will not relax safety standards. China is the world's top toy exporter, selling 22 billion toys overseas in 2006, or 60 percent of the globe's total.

Editor:Xiong Qu