Move Over China, You Have Competition
There's been all sorts of moralistic posturing when it comes to the unsafe products being imported from China, but it appears that this country has done the same thing, and continues to do so. From an excellent article in today's Sacramento Bee.
Ten days ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced another in a series of well-publicized recalls of Chinese-made goods: children's art sets containing crayons, markers, pastels, pencils, water colors -- and lead -- distributed by Toys "R" Us.
"Consumers should immediately take the products away from children," warned a news release from the federal government's watchdog for thousands of household items. "The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families."
But 13 months earlier, in July 2006, the CPSC, without a press release or corresponding media attention, authorized a Los Angeles company to export to Venezuela 16,520 art sets that violated the same CPSC standard protecting children from dangerous art supplies. The following month, the agency authorized a Miami company to export to Jamaica 5,184 sets of wax crayons that also violated the standard. ...
Using the CPSC's database of exports of non-approved products and hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act, The Bee found that between October 1993 and September 2006, the CPSC received 1,031 requests from companies to export products the agency had found unsafe for American consumers. The CPSC approved 991 of those requests, or 96 percent.
Agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said the CPSC is simply following export notification law "as Congress spelled it out for us." But CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore strongly objected to the policy.
"Our agency, through our governing statues, cannot claim much moral superiority over the Chinese, or any other foreign country, when it comes to our own export policy," Moore said in a list of his legislative proposals submitted to Congress in July. "Our export policy is based on a desire to see U.S. manufacturers be able to compete in foreign countries in terms of price and marketability, not safety.
"... It is somewhat hypocritical of us to berate any other country for not requiring their manufacturers to abide by the myriad U.S. mandatory and voluntary product safety standards." [Emphasis added]
To be fair, as the Bee points out, the statistics do not differentiate between products shipped here mistakenly which required government approval to return to the manufacturer or to the proper recipient.
The CPSC database did not identify how many of the approved exports were products made outside the United States that simply were returned to their manufacturers and how many made here or elsewhere were actually exported for sale in other countries. The data also represent just a portion of all products violating CPSC standards exported from the United States to other countries.
Even with that caveat, however, it is clear that at least some (if not most) of the unsafe products were knowingly approved for shipment from American businesses who produced them or who contracted with businesses here or abroad who produced them. Here's a dandy example of that as well as the "excuse" made for the practice:
On Sept. 7, 2005, Great Lakes Products Inc., of Indianapolis filed two requests to ship products containing isobutyl nitrite, used as a fragrance in such things as room odorizers. CPSC denied the shipment to Canada, but approved the request to ship between 14,400 and 28,800 bottles of room odorant containing the same banned chemical to the Czech Republic.
Isobutyl nitrite, used in inhalers known as "poppers" to enhance sexual arousal, was banned in the United States in 1988 following allegations of medical side effects, including the spread of AIDS.
Attorney Walt Sanders, a vice president for a Washington-area lobbying firm who spoke on behalf of Great Lakes Products, said the products were produced in the United States for export.
"If Great Lakes wants to sell these products to any country in the world that will accept these products, they're free to do so, as long as they don't sell them in the United States," Sanders said.
Oh, please.
This is monstrous and immoral, if not illegal (which it should be).
Ten days ago, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced another in a series of well-publicized recalls of Chinese-made goods: children's art sets containing crayons, markers, pastels, pencils, water colors -- and lead -- distributed by Toys "R" Us.
"Consumers should immediately take the products away from children," warned a news release from the federal government's watchdog for thousands of household items. "The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families."
But 13 months earlier, in July 2006, the CPSC, without a press release or corresponding media attention, authorized a Los Angeles company to export to Venezuela 16,520 art sets that violated the same CPSC standard protecting children from dangerous art supplies. The following month, the agency authorized a Miami company to export to Jamaica 5,184 sets of wax crayons that also violated the standard. ...
Using the CPSC's database of exports of non-approved products and hundreds of pages of documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act, The Bee found that between October 1993 and September 2006, the CPSC received 1,031 requests from companies to export products the agency had found unsafe for American consumers. The CPSC approved 991 of those requests, or 96 percent.
Agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said the CPSC is simply following export notification law "as Congress spelled it out for us." But CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore strongly objected to the policy.
"Our agency, through our governing statues, cannot claim much moral superiority over the Chinese, or any other foreign country, when it comes to our own export policy," Moore said in a list of his legislative proposals submitted to Congress in July. "Our export policy is based on a desire to see U.S. manufacturers be able to compete in foreign countries in terms of price and marketability, not safety.
"... It is somewhat hypocritical of us to berate any other country for not requiring their manufacturers to abide by the myriad U.S. mandatory and voluntary product safety standards." [Emphasis added]
To be fair, as the Bee points out, the statistics do not differentiate between products shipped here mistakenly which required government approval to return to the manufacturer or to the proper recipient.
The CPSC database did not identify how many of the approved exports were products made outside the United States that simply were returned to their manufacturers and how many made here or elsewhere were actually exported for sale in other countries. The data also represent just a portion of all products violating CPSC standards exported from the United States to other countries.
Even with that caveat, however, it is clear that at least some (if not most) of the unsafe products were knowingly approved for shipment from American businesses who produced them or who contracted with businesses here or abroad who produced them. Here's a dandy example of that as well as the "excuse" made for the practice:
On Sept. 7, 2005, Great Lakes Products Inc., of Indianapolis filed two requests to ship products containing isobutyl nitrite, used as a fragrance in such things as room odorizers. CPSC denied the shipment to Canada, but approved the request to ship between 14,400 and 28,800 bottles of room odorant containing the same banned chemical to the Czech Republic.
Isobutyl nitrite, used in inhalers known as "poppers" to enhance sexual arousal, was banned in the United States in 1988 following allegations of medical side effects, including the spread of AIDS.
Attorney Walt Sanders, a vice president for a Washington-area lobbying firm who spoke on behalf of Great Lakes Products, said the products were produced in the United States for export.
"If Great Lakes wants to sell these products to any country in the world that will accept these products, they're free to do so, as long as they don't sell them in the United States," Sanders said.
Oh, please.
This is monstrous and immoral, if not illegal (which it should be).
Labels: Free Markets, Hypocrisy
posted by Diane at 11:15 AM
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