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Post by blueneck on Sept 5, 2007 17:32:57 GMT -6
Mattel has issued a third recall of 800,000 chinese made toys including Barbies with lead paint. Clearly, contrary to what corporate CEO slimeball Eckart and the current chinese propaganda machine say, the volume of tainted, poison, dangerous and just plain shoddy chinese made product is much greater than a "few isolated incidents". What is getting caught is just a tip of a much bigger iceberg www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20592481/
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Sept 6, 2007 3:16:21 GMT -6
moneycentral.msn.com/investor/charts/chartdl.aspx?Symbol=MAT&CP=0&PT=6Mattel's stock prices are down for the year. The best outcome would be for them to just go under. They've transferred most of their production to foreign countries. They're no longer an American company. They're just another foreign company that feeds at the trough of the American consumer market.
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Post by blueneck on Sept 6, 2007 4:26:31 GMT -6
If Mattel supposedly has what is often referred to as the most stringent quality control system among toy importers (lets start calling these companies what they really are - they no longer actually produce anything) what does that say about the other toy companies? we don't even know yet the level of poor quality and threat of poison and lack of safety coming from these other sources. Its past time to sit back and just take this. We as citizens and consumers need to be speaking out and fighting back. we need to write our congressmen demanding more reulation and inspection and action against foreign goods, we need to call and write the importers of these producst and let them know we don't want the cheap chinese junk - we want "Made in USA" and we also need to tell the retailers we don't want the cheap chinese crap anymore either. Most importantly and most effectively we need to vote with our wallets - just plain stop buying chinese products whenever and wherever possible, as well as stop buying the american brands that import the stuff. Cheez at this point I'll take 'Hecho in Mejico" over china From the NY Times: SHANGHAI, Sept. 4 — In recent weeks, Beijing has begun its most concerted global public relations offensive since the outbreak of SARS, the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Skip to next paragraph Related In 3rd Recall, Mattel Says More Toys Include Lead Diplomats and government officials are holding news conferences on food and product safety. They are showing contrition in high-level talks with Western officials and offering tours of government safety laboratories to foreign journalists.
But China has also struck back at critics who have called Chinese goods shoddy or dangerous, and highlighted problems with the exports of other nations.
And, in its latest move to respond to a series of recalls and product safety scandals, Beijing introduced a new food and toy recall system last week and announced a “special war” to crack down on poor-quality products and unlicensed manufacturers.
Marshaling an army of inspectors, the government said it had already begun nationwide inspections of farms, groceries, restaurants and manufacturing operations in an effort to root out fake and substandard goods.
Regulators say that in recent months they have broken up scores of counterfeit drug factories, unlicensed toy producers and criminal networks that make everything from fake bird flu medicine and fake Viagra to counterfeit toothpaste.
Beginning last weekend, regulators also said food packages that did not carry a label certifying them as safe were being blocked from export.
“This is a special war to protect the safety and interests of the general public, as well as a war to safeguard the ‘Made in China’ label and the country’s image,” Vice Premier Wu Yi, one of China’s highest-ranking officials, said at a news conference Friday.
Trying to convince the international community of its commitment to product safety after scandals involving everything from tainted pet food ingredients and toxic toothpaste to toys coated with lead paint, the government on Tuesday offered foreign journalists escorted tours of a toy factory and toy testing lab in Guangdong Province, where most of the country’s — and the world’s — toys are produced. The government hoped the tour would demonstrate that new safeguards had been put in place.
The bold actions and tough talk suggest that China is growing increasingly worried about the possibility of trade sanctions or further damage to its international profile heading into 2008, when Beijing is to be the host to the Summer Olympics.
But the government has also shown its resolve to fight back against critics of its booming exports, with Beijing labeling many of them as trade protectionists. Last week, for instance, China blocked imports of American wood packaging material after officials said inspectors had found the batch to be contaminated with “worms and other creatures.”
That was just the latest such move in a year in which Chinese regulators have rejected imports of American meat, Indonesian seafood and other products from the Philippines, South Korea, Germany, France and Spain, saying those countries shipped shoddy or tainted goods.
But experts say regulators here are facing daunting challenges in trying to overhaul a corrupt and ineffective regulatory system that is ill-equipped to control a marketplace teeming with unlicensed operations and entrepreneurs willing to cut corners to make a bigger profit.
“The reality is this is a vast problem, involving hundreds of thousands of factories, which are hard to police,” said Arthur Kroeber, a longtime China watcher and publisher of The China Economic Quarterly. But experts say regulators here are facing daunting challenges in trying to overhaul a corrupt and ineffective regulatory system that is ill-equipped to control a marketplace teeming with unlicensed operations and entrepreneurs willing to cut corners to make a bigger profit.
“The reality is this is a vast problem, involving hundreds of thousands of factories, which are hard to police,” said Arthur Kroeber, a longtime China watcher and publisher of The China Economic Quarterly.
The government has also begun a campaign aimed at the domestic market.
read more here www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/business/05counter.html?ex=1204603200&en=0026e37837d2cb3a&ei=5087&excamp=GGBUtoyrecall I am sorry a PR campaign isn't going to cut it - we need real action - from our government one of whose most basic jobs is to regualte trade and protect our ctizens, and action from the consumer to stop supporting this corrupt system
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Post by redwolf on Sept 9, 2007 10:25:16 GMT -6
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Post by blueneck on Sept 9, 2007 13:25:00 GMT -6
The best way is to stop the imports altogether. But probably more practically is step up inspection and enforcement - as well as raise tariffs to pay for the increased scrutiny.
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