Wal-Mart tightening quality standards for China suppliers

BEIJING, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N), said on Wednesday it would begin forcing Chinese suppliers to meet new quality standards and assume responsibility for their subcontractors.

"We expect you to tell us not just where the tennis shoes were assembled but which subcontractor played a role in making them," Mike Duke, vice chairman of the international division, said at a company conference in Beijing, attended by many of the company's suppliers.

He did not say specifically how the quality standards would be tightened.

Wall-Mart, with more than 60,000 suppliers worldwide, procures roughly $9 billion worth of goods directly from China.

Duke said the new standards would begin in November for certain product lines, including apparel, and gradually cover all the company's products.

($=6.83 yuan) (Reporting by Kirby Chien, writing by Ken Wills; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)