Mattel’s two truths about dangerous toys
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China is fully satisfied for Mattel’s public apology and taking “full responsibility” for most of the 21 million dangerous toys made in China under its trade mark that were pulled off the shelves over the past two months. For state-owned China Daily this should “help dispel the suspicion American customers harbour against China-made products.” But some experts suggest that not every aspect of the problem has been dealt with.
Mattel has in fact told two “truths”. On September 12 Mattel's chief executive, Robert Eckert, told the US Senate: “We were let down, and so we let you down.” That was clearly an attempt to pin the blame on mainland suppliers and to take responsibility only for poor quality control whilst taking the credit for coming forth with the problem as soon as it emerged.
However, a few days later the company's executive vice-president, Thomas Debrowski, did acknowledge that the vast majority of the 21 million toys were recalled not for problems stemming from the manufacturing process but as a result of Mattel's own design faults.
Western companies have moved to China to take advantage of its cheap labour, which leads to low salaries. Manufacturers are pushed to use cheap materials.
If foreign companies like Mattel fail to carry out proper quality control one may ask whether their confidence in Chinese suppliers shows more a lack of interest towards the consumers than anything else. In fact Chinese manufacturers were still responsible for the use of lead paint in about 2 million toys, as Debrowski noted.
Even if they are satisfied with Mattel’s apology, Chinese authorities must continue to enforce quality control and ensure products are not counterfeit.
Moreover, they should not forget that tainted pet food, toxic toothpaste and substandard tyres, to name but a few, had already raised doubts over made-in-China products.
For experts introducing new rules and regulations is not enough if they are not implemented.
As was too often the case in the past there still is precious little transparency in Chinese responses. Initially the authorities simply deny responsibility for any problem rather than investigate. This has caused a loss of confidence in Chinese products more than the sale of counterfeits, something that is bound to happen when controls are deficient.
But such disingenuousness is not much different from what a US senator said, namely that such a problem could “not be happening in the US.”
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