businesses seek more China trade oversight

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Businesses pressed Congress for greater U.S. vigilance against unsafe imports from China on Thursday as the Bush administration announced new steps to help China itself guard against perilous products.

Lawmakers on a House Ways and Means Subcommittee received pleas for stepped-up government response to the recent spate of tainted imports, including toothpaste, seafood and toys from the Asian nation, which may soon become the United States' largest trading partner in total exports and imports.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which includes companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., complained inspection and regulation funding has not kept up with the growing tide of foreign food crossing U.S. borders.

"Food safety should be a critical homeland security priority, and it deserves proper funding," the group said in its testimony.

Lawmakers are taking a hard look at imports from China as they examine the two countries' overall economic ties and consider steps to address a giant trade imbalance.

On Wednesday, Mattel Inc. recalled 1.5 million toys made in China, including popular characters Elmo and Big Bird, at risk of having paint with too much lead. It was only the latest in a series of import scares related to China.

Last year, China exported about $1.93 billion worth of seafood and $800 million worth of fruit, vegetable and juice to the United States. But the U.S. government, whose food safety system is dispersed among several different agencies, inspects just a small fraction of those goods.

'HANDS-OFF' STANCE?

Some in the Democratic-controlled Congress are faulting the Bush administration for a weak and ill-orchestrated response to the problems, despite the recent creation of a new high-level panel which will make recommendations next month about how to ensure safety all imports of all food, not just from China.

"The administrations has really had too much (of) a hands-off approach," said Michigan Democrat Sander Levin, who chairs the Trade Subcommittee.

U.S. businesses, meanwhile, want a more active response, but they don't want to shoulder the burden alone. At least one lawmaker has proposed new fees on all foreign food imports to help fund inspections.

"Additional fees and hurdles placed solely on the import community could be viewed as protectionist," the retail group said.

The U.S.-China Business Council, which includes firms like Archer Daniel Midlands Co., Monsanto Co. and Morgan Stanley, warned against overreacting with "blanket bans" on all Chinese products.

That echoes the line from Beijing, which contends that 99.2 percent of its food exports to the United States met quality standards in 2006.

Also on Thursday, the Bush administration reported that a senior delegation sent to Beijing this week had charted a new course to bolster safety of food, farm goods and drug imports from China.

"Our vision ... aims to increase cooperation and information sharing between the U.S. and Chinese governments" and to strengthen China's own regulation, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.

The next in a series of bilateral talks on the safety issue will occur next month in Beijing, he said.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer)