Chinese and European Union (EU) quality control officials yesterday agreed to
share more information on seizures of substandard consumer products and
strengthen law enforcement to better combat unsafe goods.
The two sides
will have to thrash out the details
of the action plan.
For now, safety watchdogs from the two sides will
exchange more information on unsafe products in the EU rapid alert system for
non-food products, known as RAPEX, to help them better select targets for
enforcement.
China has promised to take more rigorous action against
companies found guilty of making substandard products, according to the
country's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and
Quarantine (AQSIQ).
The agreement is the latest between China and the
EU, AQSIQ Minister Li Changjiang said after he met with the visiting EU Consumer
Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva in Beijing yesterday. But officials gave
no further details.
The two sides signed a cooperation agreement in
January giving China access to RAPEX. The Chinese side agreed to help track down
the Chinese culprits who supplied substandard products to the EU.
China
has also vowed to crack down on substandard product makers in general.
Under RAPEX, about 48 percent of the 924 products identified as unsafe
for the EU market last year were from China, down 2 percentage points than the
previous year.
Commissioner Kuneva said she had seen China improve its
handling of products, but the EU wanted Beijing to help avoid consumer safety
firestorms by tracing more complaints down the trade chain to the factory floor.
"Yes, there is an improvement but also it's equally valid that there is
need of the reforms to be stepped up on the market and on market surveillance,"
she said.
Minister Li acknowledged that the safety of Chinese products
had been in the global spotlight recently. But he said product safety was not
only China's concern, but also the common responsibility of all countries.
AQSIQ figures show that in the first half of this year, 98.8 percent of
the food products from the EU were up to standard, 1 percentage point less than
the equivalent figure for Chinese food exports to the EU.
Also, about
1.1 percent of the food products from Japan to China in the first six months
were not up to standard.
Last week, the AQSIQ issued a warning and asked
for tighter control over aquatic
products from Japan after infective anisakis worms, a genus of
parasitic nematodes, was found in
two types of fish from the country. The worms can cause violent abdominal pain,
nausea and vomiting within hours after ingestion.
Today, Kuneva will
meet with senior officials of the State Administration of Industry and Commerce,
and head for East China's Jiangsu Province to visit toy factories and test
centers to see how Chinese surveillance works.
(China Daily 07/24/2007
page 2)
Vocabulary:
thrash out：反复讨论（以便作出决定）
aquatic products：水产品
parasitic nematode：寄生线虫
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from
Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong
and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, producing current affairs shows and
documentaries.
