EU should target firms and not China on unsafe goods

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A ban on Chinese imports is not the answer to preventing unsafe products from reaching the European Union, the bloc's leading consumer group said on Wednesday, citing EU governments and companies such as Mattel Inc as the real offenders.

European Consumers Organization BEUC said the European Commission, the EU executive, should punish countries and firms for allowing unsafe products onto the market, rather than banning Chinese imports.

BEUC made the call following Tuesday's global recall by Mattel, the world's biggest toymaker, of Chinese-made toys which contain excessive levels of lead. This was the company's third global recall in as many months.

"Clearly there are manufacturing problems in China, but the responsibility lies with the client, the company in Europe which has ordered the products," Jim Murray, head of BEUC, told Reuters in an interview.

"But member states which issue permits to these companies, fail to act or prevent unsafe products from reaching the shelves must also be punished by the European Commission."

A spate of incidents involving suspect Chinese products ranging from toys and seafood to toothpaste that entered both EU and U.S. markets has prompted calls on both sides of the Atlantic for a ban on products "made in China".

"It is right that officials should go to China and try to force them to improve their standards," Murray said.

"But at the end of the day, it is the companies such as Mattel, importers and retailers who are ultimately based in Europe, which must be held accountable in the first place."

TOUGHER ACTION

BEUC has written to the European Commission, which oversees the bloc's import safety regulations, seeking tougher action.

"The Commission needs to streamline the current laws and make them more workable," Murray said.

"But more importantly it must put pressure on member states to enforce these laws, with the threat of punishments such as fines or trade restrictions if necessary. Otherwise everybody will lose confidence in the European market."

The senior EU official in charge of monitoring imports backed Murray's view that much of the blame lies with European companies, not just the Chinese authorities.

"China has been warned and they need to clean up their act very quickly, but it is too easy to make China a scapegoat every time and say Chinese products are rubbish," said Stefano Soro, head of the Commission's rapid alert system for non-food products, known as RAPEX.

Under the RAPEX system, 48 percent of all products notified as unsafe in 2006 came from China compared with five percent from Germany, the next highest country of origin.

"But vendors who have a VAT number and sell on the European market need to be responsible for their actions. These vendors are to blame also," Soro told Reuters.

The EU's consumer protection chief warned China in July that the 27-member bloc would take measures, or even impose a ban, if it failed to halt exports of dangerous products.

The U.S. has also threatened similar action, but China sees this as a trade protection measure and claims it is doing everything it can to clamp down on rogue exports.