WASHINGTON - China will work with the United States to ensure the safety of exported toys and other goods, a top Chinese official said, but Beijing still insists it is not solely to blame in recent safety scandals.
Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said the lengthy talks with U.S. agencies in Washington this week were productive.
"Through sincere and close cooperation between our two countries, the U.S. consumers could get more and more Chinese products with high quality," Wei told reporters.
Chinese and U.S. officials will meet again this fall as they prepare two agriculture and environment agreements they hope to sign during an economic summit in Beijing in December.
Wei pointed to a litany of steps China has taken against tainted or unsafe pet food, toys, toothpaste and fish, like blacklisting unscrupulous firms and a new English-language Web site on product safety, but he gave few details on steps the two nations would take together to head off future problems.
But after meetings with health, agriculture, environment and other officials here, including a brief discussion with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, China still sees threats of "trade protectionism," and puts much of the onus for keeping consumers safe on the U.S. government and private sector.
The lion's share of Chinese-made toys recalled in recent weeks were unsafely designed by companies such as Mattel Inc, Wei said, suggesting that only 15 percent of recalled toys were corrupted by Chinese firms' use of lead paint.
