Congress takes aim at unsafe Chinese food products
Friday, 20 July 2007
Mark Drajen
Congress will take its first steps soon to counter a surge of tainted imports from China, voting to tighten food-labeling rules and summoning U.S. officials to explain how the defective goods made it into the country.
The House Appropriations Committee is likely to end four years of delay and approve legislation that would require food companies to list the country of origin for meat and produce. A Senate panel will ask health and safety regulators to testify on strengthening border controls.
``We shouldn't have trade that trumps public health,'' said Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat and head of the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. ``The whole issue of labeling and knowing where a product comes from is more and more important'' given the health scares on Chinese products, she said in an interview.
China, the world's biggest exporter of consumer products, is under pressure from the U.S. and European Union to strengthen regulations after a series of scares ranging from lead paint on toy trains to drug-tainted seafood to off-road vehicles without front brakes. The scare over Chinese products was kicked off early this year when melamine, used to make plastics, was found in pet food blamed for killing cats and dogs.
``We need to change the way we do business with China,'' said Donald Mays, senior director for product safety at the Consumers Union. Mays, who will outline eight ways U.S. safety laws should be toughened in testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee today, said lawmakers ``antennae are up'' on China.
The safety complaints against Chinese products follow on lawmakers' previous allegations about China's copying of movies and music, subsidies to industry and currency practices that keep its products cheaper, and may be more damaging to China's commercial relations, business leaders say.
``Currency is hard for people to get their arms around, but lead paint on Thomas the Tank Engine is not,'' said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland. ``It's much more tangible and poignant.''
Unlike measures aimed at China's currency, these efforts can't be easily dismissed as ``protectionist,'' he said.
``This focus on food quality is primarily caused by sensational reporting by certain foreign media groups,'' said Zhi Shuping, a deputy director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to a statement posted on the agency's Web site on July 17. ``That said, there are certain Chinese enterprises that are not rigorous enough in applying quality standards and we as an agency are cracking down and imposing fines.''
This month, China suspended meat imports from seven U.S. suppliers claiming they contained too much salmonella, additive residues and anti-parasite drugs.
At stake is one of the largest commercial relationships in the world, and one that American business groups say will be the most important over the next decades. China is the second- largest trading partner with the U.S. after Canada, with $343 billion in two-way trade last year.
Consumer groups and Democratic lawmakers are pushing to impose country-of-origin labeling on food in October 2008. This measure, first approved in farm legislation in 2002, faced opposition from meat packers and food marketing companies who say it complicates their packaging and confuses consumers.
Those companies got the regulations delayed twice before, but critics and proponents expect the deadline to hold now.
``Everyone has had an eye-opening experience about our lax regulations,'' said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, which supports the labeling law. Any vote on the measure in the House of Representatives would now secure more than 300 votes in favor of labeling, he predicted.
``We believe the 2008 date is appropriate,'' said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which opposed the labeling rule in 2002.
In addition to food labeling, the Senate Commerce Committee will conduct a hearing on the different Chinese safety problems and the administration's efforts to combat it.
First on the list to testify is Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat who has sponsored a measure to mandate that the Food and Drug Administration require foreign countries to have the same health standards as the U.S. to send their products here, to collect fees on imports and use that money to conduct more inspections.
The FDA doesn't have enough staff to protect Americans from tainted food imports, lawmakers and congressional investigators said at a congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. The agency inspects less than 1 percent of imported food and takes samples of only a fraction of those products, said Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat.
Brown won't be alone in calling for more inspections and increased FDA funding.
Jay Timmons of the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents many of the largest companies with operations in China, will urge Congress to increase funding for the FDA and inspections of imports. The value of all U.S. imports has surged 50 percent to $1.8 trillion from 2000 to 2006, while the staff and funding of safety agencies hasn't kept pace, he will say.
``This situation demands action on China's part and, as necessary, pressure from the United States to prompt that action,'' Timmons will tell the lawmakers, according to a copy of his testimony.
Mays will call for more far-reaching measures, including holding importers and retailers accountable for the faults of foreign manufacturers, expanding third-party certification to products such as food and toys and requiring importers to post a bond so that they can fund recalls if necessary.
``Global concerns about quality are going to force the Chinese government to raise manufacturing standards,'' said Guan Anping, a former trade official, in a phone interview. ``In China, we do have certain entrepreneurs who just focus on getting rich quick and cut corners to get there. The government is aware of this.''
Business groups say they are already meeting privately with lawmakers to be sure that any new legislation is consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization and won't lead to retaliation against U.S. goods.
``There are a lot of people in Congress giving a lot of thought to legislation in this area,'' said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents companies such as Citigroup Inc. and Caterpillar Inc.
Reinsch, who met with congressional staff members yesterday to discuss possible remedies, said the threat of retaliation ``is exactly what the business community is worried about.''
``A trade war is possible right now between the U.S. and China,'' said Guan, the former Chinese trade official. ``It's election season in the U.S., and China is an easy target.''
Bloomberg
Congress will take its first steps soon to counter a surge of tainted imports from China, voting to tighten food-labeling rules and summoning U.S. officials to explain how the defective goods made it into the country.
The House Appropriations Committee is likely to end four years of delay and approve legislation that would require food companies to list the country of origin for meat and produce. A Senate panel will ask health and safety regulators to testify on strengthening border controls.
``We shouldn't have trade that trumps public health,'' said Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat and head of the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. ``The whole issue of labeling and knowing where a product comes from is more and more important'' given the health scares on Chinese products, she said in an interview.
China, the world's biggest exporter of consumer products, is under pressure from the U.S. and European Union to strengthen regulations after a series of scares ranging from lead paint on toy trains to drug-tainted seafood to off-road vehicles without front brakes. The scare over Chinese products was kicked off early this year when melamine, used to make plastics, was found in pet food blamed for killing cats and dogs.
``We need to change the way we do business with China,'' said Donald Mays, senior director for product safety at the Consumers Union. Mays, who will outline eight ways U.S. safety laws should be toughened in testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee today, said lawmakers ``antennae are up'' on China.
The safety complaints against Chinese products follow on lawmakers' previous allegations about China's copying of movies and music, subsidies to industry and currency practices that keep its products cheaper, and may be more damaging to China's commercial relations, business leaders say.
``Currency is hard for people to get their arms around, but lead paint on Thomas the Tank Engine is not,'' said Peter Morici, an economist at the University of Maryland. ``It's much more tangible and poignant.''
Unlike measures aimed at China's currency, these efforts can't be easily dismissed as ``protectionist,'' he said.
``This focus on food quality is primarily caused by sensational reporting by certain foreign media groups,'' said Zhi Shuping, a deputy director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, according to a statement posted on the agency's Web site on July 17. ``That said, there are certain Chinese enterprises that are not rigorous enough in applying quality standards and we as an agency are cracking down and imposing fines.''
This month, China suspended meat imports from seven U.S. suppliers claiming they contained too much salmonella, additive residues and anti-parasite drugs.
At stake is one of the largest commercial relationships in the world, and one that American business groups say will be the most important over the next decades. China is the second- largest trading partner with the U.S. after Canada, with $343 billion in two-way trade last year.
Consumer groups and Democratic lawmakers are pushing to impose country-of-origin labeling on food in October 2008. This measure, first approved in farm legislation in 2002, faced opposition from meat packers and food marketing companies who say it complicates their packaging and confuses consumers.
Those companies got the regulations delayed twice before, but critics and proponents expect the deadline to hold now.
``Everyone has had an eye-opening experience about our lax regulations,'' said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmers Union, which supports the labeling law. Any vote on the measure in the House of Representatives would now secure more than 300 votes in favor of labeling, he predicted.
``We believe the 2008 date is appropriate,'' said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which opposed the labeling rule in 2002.
In addition to food labeling, the Senate Commerce Committee will conduct a hearing on the different Chinese safety problems and the administration's efforts to combat it.
First on the list to testify is Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat who has sponsored a measure to mandate that the Food and Drug Administration require foreign countries to have the same health standards as the U.S. to send their products here, to collect fees on imports and use that money to conduct more inspections.
The FDA doesn't have enough staff to protect Americans from tainted food imports, lawmakers and congressional investigators said at a congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. The agency inspects less than 1 percent of imported food and takes samples of only a fraction of those products, said Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat.
Brown won't be alone in calling for more inspections and increased FDA funding.
Jay Timmons of the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents many of the largest companies with operations in China, will urge Congress to increase funding for the FDA and inspections of imports. The value of all U.S. imports has surged 50 percent to $1.8 trillion from 2000 to 2006, while the staff and funding of safety agencies hasn't kept pace, he will say.
``This situation demands action on China's part and, as necessary, pressure from the United States to prompt that action,'' Timmons will tell the lawmakers, according to a copy of his testimony.
Mays will call for more far-reaching measures, including holding importers and retailers accountable for the faults of foreign manufacturers, expanding third-party certification to products such as food and toys and requiring importers to post a bond so that they can fund recalls if necessary.
``Global concerns about quality are going to force the Chinese government to raise manufacturing standards,'' said Guan Anping, a former trade official, in a phone interview. ``In China, we do have certain entrepreneurs who just focus on getting rich quick and cut corners to get there. The government is aware of this.''
Business groups say they are already meeting privately with lawmakers to be sure that any new legislation is consistent with the rules of the World Trade Organization and won't lead to retaliation against U.S. goods.
``There are a lot of people in Congress giving a lot of thought to legislation in this area,'' said William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents companies such as Citigroup Inc. and Caterpillar Inc.
Reinsch, who met with congressional staff members yesterday to discuss possible remedies, said the threat of retaliation ``is exactly what the business community is worried about.''
``A trade war is possible right now between the U.S. and China,'' said Guan, the former Chinese trade official. ``It's election season in the U.S., and China is an easy target.''
Bloomberg