The US will station inspectors in three Chinese cities to scrutinise exports to the world’s largest economy, responding to concerns over the safety of China-produced food, toys and pharmaceutical ingredients.
Up to 15 inspectors will be assigned to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from October, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt said in an interview. China agreed in December 2007 to let the Food and Drug Administration establish China offices, among the agreements reached in its Strategic Economic Dialogue with the US.
China’s government “worked hard” at improving safety, Leavitt said in Beijing. “I don’t think they’ve got the problem completely solved, but it was clear to them that the made-in- China brand was affected by product quality problems and they moved aggressively to begin making progress.”
Concern over the safety of Chinese products last year shifted the focus of the twice-annual US-China strategic dialogue away from the pace of the yuan’s gains. President George W. Bush in June boosted the FDA’s budget by $275 million for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 to finance inspections of overseas plants that produce food and medicine for export.
Food-safety problems sparked a drop in exports to Japan and the US this year. Contaminated consumer exports, including pesticide-laced frozen dumplings in Japan and tainted Heparin blood thinner in the US this year have sparked international furor over the safety of Chinese-made products.
Mattel, Menu Foods:Mattel Inc, the world’s biggest toymaker, recalled 21 million Chinese-made products in 2007. The Segundo, California- based company incurred $110 million in recall, legal, advertising and testing costs last year, after taking back Sesame Street vehicles painted with lead-tainted paint and Polly Pocket dolls with magnets that may detach and be swallowed by children.
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Menu Foods Ltd, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and five other companies sued by consumers last year for selling tainted pet food reached a $24 million settlement in May with plaintiffs.
A US company, ChemNutra Inc, and two Chinese businesses were in February charged by a federal grand jury in connection with the import of tainted pet food ingredients that may have killed thousands of cats and dogs in 2007. The dog and cat foods contained melamine-tainted wheat gluten that if ingested can cause kidney failure and death.
In February, Las Vegas-based ChemNutra Inc. and two Chinese businesses were charged by a Kansas City federal grand jury with illegally importing 800 metric tons of wheat gluten poisoned with melamine. ChemNutra has denied any deliberate wrongdoing.
“I don’t think there is any question” that Chinese food and drug products are safer as compared to last year, Leavitt said. “Will there be problems in the future? Yes. Will there be as many of them? I don’t think so.”