More Outsourcing Means More Product Recalls

Today's Second Biennial Sino-U.S. Consumer Product Safety Summit in Washington provides an excellent opportunity to review both the overall state of U.S.-China trade relations and the specific issue of consumer product quality. As representatives of both the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine meet to discuss product safety, the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) notes that widespread outsourcing of goods production to China and other foreign markets with substandard quality control mechanisms poses inevitable problems, as the recent recalls of Mattel toys have demonstrated.

Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, have been assuring American officials that product safety is of the utmost concern to them. Unfortunately, China suffers from a weak regulatory process, unwieldy bureaucracy, and rampant corruption at the local level. Chinese officials lack the ability to enforce product safety standards and therefore, both the U.S. government and American consumers should remain concerned about the quality and safety of goods manufactured in China.

The U.S. imported $288 billion worth of goods from China in 2006. The CPSC, with its $63 million annual budget, staff of 420, and only one fulltime lab tester, would be hard-pressed to examine the majority of products entering the U.S. Moreover, the CPSC does not have the legal authority to test consumer products before their release in the U.S.

For now, companies like Mattel, which has endured three different recalls of Chinese-made products, are responsible for ensuring that their imported products are safe. But companies that choose to "cut corners" and send their production overseas may not be the most reliable adherents of self-imposed inspections.

As the recent recalls have shown, outsourcing has its price. While, products made in the U.S. adhere to certain set standards, the U.S. government can not currently guarantee that the same safety standards apply to all the products imported into the American market, even when they bear the name of an American company that once produced its products domestically.

Follow Scott Paul on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ScottPaulAAM

Comments

[OrangeSam]

Outsourcing does not necessarily mean more product recalls if prudent steps are taken by importers to ensure that product requirements are met.
Like you wrote, "companies ... are responsible for ensuring that their imported products are safe" just as they would be for any raw materials they procure. It seems that many of these companies have skipped periodic testing of incoming goods or, what would be best, monitoring and checking the operations at the source.
Firms not being proactive in these areas will have their reputations tarnished. Unfortunately, I've concluded that the short memory of the American public will not cause these companies enough pain in the wallet to force change and we will soon be back to witnessing the corporate blind eye when it comes to overseas operations.

[glitz]

In the past a retailer was responsible for selecting and purchasing what they sold, therefore that product represented their business. Today, the junk is just shipped and put on the shelves with no-one taking responsabi­lity..even the "brands" don't want responsability. If the retailers will not stand by their product, the consumers must hit them in the pocket!! It is going to be a slim Christmas.­..but I think when you make the mother's angry, "brands" are going to have to think about what they are doing. If parents start buying quality instead of quantity maybe there will be American manufacturers again.

[SensibleAmerican]

Very true OrangeSam. The problem is not outsourcing Had it been so, our high tech industries would have collapsed by now! There is no such thing as a recall for motherboards and/or software! Either they work or they don't!

In the IT industry, QC/QA and product testing is a department in itself! This consumes almost 1/3rd the total budget. It is this expenditure that a lot of importers avoid, leading to the recent problems with imported products

It's not outsourcing that is causing such problems, it is greed and a cavalier bottomline mentality ...

[Halsey]

Anyone who blames the Chinese manufacturing machine for hazardous toys, food, wood products is in flat out, denial..de­nial of personal responsibi­lity.. I mean, come ON,..do you really think you can pay someone (if you even pay them) $1.00 a day if that, to create a safe product? No..China is going throught what the U. S. went through when Sinclair wrote "The Jungle"... If American's can just get over the more is better addiction.­.they CAN buy toys made in, gawd forbid...t­he U. S. A.
I simply googles "toy make in the U. S."..and many sites popped up, including
http://www.fatbraintoys.com/specials/made_in_america.cfm?source=google&kwid=made+in+america&gclid=CKfrhKv3vY4CFRAjhgodF2RszA

I don't know the quality...­but what I DO know..is that this Christmas.­.I will buy nothing..n­ot one thing for my nieces and nephews not MADE in America... period, end of story.

It's about personal responsibl­ity..not China.

[andvoodootoo]

China is the country where baby girls are routinely abandoned to die. Do we Americans seriosly think they give a shit about the safety of our kids?

[Brennial]

Of course they care- they're doing to us economically what we did to the Soviets, and winning by a lead-landslide.

[dadw5boys]

If they recall or your return a product it is not carried all the way back to the factory for repier or replacement. It goes into the garbage and new one is sent. Thats all. Labor is so cheap they can make 10 for the same price they could make 1 in the USA in many cases. No Saftey cost, Health Insurance, few taxes, little regulation, and no oversight.
I bet you all those toys will laed paint a laying in a land fill in the USA right now poisioning the water of some community.