Ms Kuneva's initiative. Consumer protection and defending consumers' interests is gradually taking its rightful place in the EU. The visit of the European commissioner for consumer policy, Meglena Kuneva, to China is in this connection an important signal. Some readers perhaps recall that the setting up of this specific portfolio for her was accompanied by a number of sarcastic comments that suggested that they had had to find roles for the new Bulgarian and Romanian commissioners, who had just been appointed. “Consumers” developed out of the health remit previously managed by Mr Kyprianou. His portfolio was shared between two and the consumer remit was given to Ms Kuneva. Her visit to China shows how she sees her role.
She has made the problem of safety of Chinese products imported into Europe a political question to tackle, which therefore makes it a priority. We've been talking about false Chinese products for years. The European Commission has already sent Peking a number of warnings, and a heated polemic has arisen on a number of occasions but always in the context of trade and industrial policy. Alerts concerning the effects of some pirated goods, however, were never in short supply. I believe that this column has been one of the most active forums for stressing the scale of the dangers. The public developed a picture of false luxury or cosmetic products, false watches and copied records and films. Piracy, however, changed its targets and in some spectacularly horrific cases clearly illustrated a much more sinister situation. The press at large tackled the issue and the hierarchy of priorities was adjusted: the main priority is not the expansion of trade at any cost but rather product safety.
Double message. Before leaving for Peking Ms Kuneva indicated the double message she would be sending the Chinese authorities; a) there will be no compromise on health and safety; b) the EU and China should define common safety standards to be respected wherever the manufacturing takes place (EUROPE 9470 on the presentation of the commissioner's visit by Aminata Niang). Her press conference in Peking goes in the same direction (see following pages of this issue).
US press unleashed. As usual, it's the fire power of the US press that ricocheted in the European media and alerted the public. American journalists' investigation methods enabled them to discover that a Chinese company was adding melanin to wheat gluten in pet food so that the protein content increased. This provoked the death of several thousand cats and dogs. The case of the toxic toothpaste was analysed in detail (the authorities of certain European countries also intervened). What is serious about the matter is that western firms have sometimes been implicated by getting their products manufactured in China where no sufficient controls exist - this does not always involve false products but rather the fact that certain kinds of ingredients are suspect. The impact of these investigations on US public opinion was immense. According to the Washington Post, the words, “made in China” became the most worrying words in the English language. On 18 July, President Bush created an inter-ministerial working group to assess and bolster inspections of imports of consumer goods and food products. The most dramatic cases, however, are those involving false medicines (China is not the only country implicated but even in China there has been mention of hundreds of thousands of deaths of local people) and false plane spare parts, which according to a US estimate may have led to 166 aviation-linked deaths (liability of Chinese products has not, however, been quantified).
Chinese authorities taking action and cooperating. The fact that the Chinese authorities have responded forcefully needs to be acknowledged. Officials involved in scandals have been very severely punished: the head of the equivalent of the Chinese Food and Drug Administration was taken out and shot for corruption after having authorised false medicines. A senior Chinese official, however, pointed out that 58% of products labelled “Made in China” are produced by western multinationals, which benefit from the profits. Kuneva is therefore right to call for joint EU/China action in order to resolve the problems together. She indicated that the Chinese authorities are actively collaborating and that their approach has been positive. The Euro-Chinese summit in November is expected to announce a joint plan.
What counts is that words are followed by deeds and that unlimited trade expansion is not considered to be a priority objective in itself. (FR)