China told to stop blame game for product safety

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - China should pay more attention to shoring up its product safety supervision network rather than apportioning blame for recent problems, a senior European Union official said on Wednesday.

The quality of Chinese goods has come under international scrutiny following scandals involving products ranging from toothpaste and pet food to toys and fish.

China insists the issue is limited to a few errant companies and hyped by foreign media as well as being driven by a protectionist agenda in some countries.

Chinese deputy quality watchdog chief Wei Chuanzhong repeated that criticism of the press to European Commission Director General for Enterprise and Industry, Heinz Zourek, but the EU official said he thought action would be better than words.

"I can assure you that the European Union is determined to draw conclusions out of these experiences that we have been witnessing. But we feel that we should concentrate our efforts on how to improve the system rather than blaming anybody," Zourek told Wei at a meeting in Beijing.

"What we must not do is compromise on the safety, whatever the quality level. The products have to be safe," he added. "It is important to undertake measures, but it is equally important to have an efficient communication and alert system in place."

China needed to better coordinate its own standards system to avoid duplication, Zourek later told a news conference, pointing out that imports of medical devices to China were checked by the quality watchdog as well as the food and drug administration.

"One requires a re-registration every four years, the other every five years. They do it in different places," he said.