Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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August 16, 2007

China Investigates US Toy Recalls
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=18B860B:A6F02AD83191E1602C7B7C247AF4649F9574F7DCC14957C0 Commerce Ministry
says manufacturers, exporters of toys sent to Mattel will not be
allowed to operate until their products are deemed safe China's
Commerce Ministry is investigating Chinese companies that produced and
exported the toys that the U.S. company Mattel says are unsafe. Daniel
Schearf reports from Beijing.







Chinese boy holds 'Barbie and Tanner' toy made by Mattel in Shanghai
department store, 16 Aug 2007China's Commerce Ministry said Thursday
that the manufacturers and exporters of the toys sent to Mattel would
not be allowed to operate until their products were deemed safe.



Mattel, the leading U.S. toy company, this week extended a recall to
more than 18 million toys made in China. Mattel says the toys had two
safety problems: unsafe amounts of lead paint, which can cause serious
bodily damage, or small magnets that children could choke on.



Commerce Ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei repeated the Chinese
authorities' often-used defense in such cases, saying the majority of
China's toy exports are safe, and the media are exaggerating the
extent of the problem.



"Why is there some bias against Chinese-made products, or a belief
that 'made in China' is bad? There are some media or irresponsible
people taking small problems, without any basis, and applying them to
other products or all Chinese products," the spokesman said.



Wang says in 2006, the Chinese toy industry's exports were worth $7
billion, and amounted to 70 percent of world toy exports.


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