Posted on 07/13/2007 9:57:34 PM PDT by neverdem
To hear the drumbeat in Washington, you'd think trade barriers are the only way to protect Americans from tainted Chinese products. But the good news is that individual companies and the Chinese government are getting a lesson in free-market branding and quality control that will do more to promote safer products than trade barriers ever will.
Since the melamine-laced pet food scandal hit in March, American consumers have witnessed one Chinese safety problem after another. There have been lead-tainted toys, antifreeze-tainted counterfeit tubes of toothpaste, antibiotic-tainted fish, salmonella-tainted snack foods, and tread-separating tires. And that's nothing compared to what Chinese consumers have faced. Last month brought exposure of fake blood proteins and fungus-tainted baby diapers; this month came word of explosion-prone counterfeit mobile phone batteries.
All of which has politicians calling for new trade restrictions. In response to concerns about fish safety, the Food and Drug Administration recently required testing of all fish imports from China, a regulatory burden so onerous it amounts to a ban. Senator Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.)--of 27.5% punitive tariff fame--has called for creation of an "import czar" to "focus on the rising tide of Chinese goods coming in to the U.S." Other Members of Congress are taking the opportunity to refight the 2000 battle over China's World Trade Organization accession.
This is protectionism masquerading as safety. And it misses the incentives that already exist in the U.S. marketplace for companies to better police their own product lines for quality. Take litigation. Too many American companies have assumed they can't be held liable because they only import Chinese goods manufactured by someone else. But all bets are off as soon as injured children or sick adults start appearing before juries. At least 100 lawsuits stemming from the pet food case have already been filed, while the...
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
I think one of the biggest issues with China is going to be the issue of intellectual property. They do not give a rat’s ass over there about it.
MaaaaaMa!!!,,,Looky...!
I’m smiling. I love it.
IF THERE EVER WAS A CASE FOR A CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION, WEAPONS-GRADE FOOD AND CONSUMER PRODUCTS FROM CHINA WOULD BE IT.
The si-rence is deafening.
Nobody dies from intellectual property theft. Contaminated food, medicine and personal products is a much bigger issue.
I disagree in respect to the bigger picture.
I agree with the premise of the article that market forces WILL squash those deadly things, in my opinion. It just will not happen overnight.
No matter what China does, it seems the majority of our politicians will continue to kiss China’s butt.
They will if it costs them money. Don’t buy Chinese
Poppycock. Consumers have a right to assume that if the FDA approves a product safe for human consumption that it is indeed safe for human consumption. Actually engaging in testing the well-known problematic fish from Red China has resulted in this continued testing regime because of the legitimate worry about food safety. The tests are showing problems, so it makes good sense to continue the tests --- stopping the tests because it is somehow "trade protectionism" and just letting the known bad fish products through seems to me a bad idea.
If the Wall Street Journal's argument is caveat emptor, then implicitly we are saying that we will let the market forces of letting some number of consumers being poisoned or even dying to be the trigger to stop the imports? I am a believer in free markets, but suicide strikes me as a mighty stupid market mechanism. Testing by an agency of known problematic sources of food seems a lot more reasonable to me.
Judging by the reaction of American officials, China feels these measures are being well received.
Online sales of counterfeit Viagra and other branded pharmaceuticals.
Spam advertising of "Anything you want with no prescription".
Fake products such as toothpaste sold under other people's registered Trademarks.
We will never know the real toll.
What with China’s current rat and mice problem, how long before poisoned rodent remains turn up in cereal/petfood...(insert every other Chinese product here), exported all over the world.
“They will if it costs them money. Don’t buy Chinese”
Easier said then done. Even American made products have Chinese ingredients. I am sure after these problems they will look for alternatives, but there isn’t alternatives to things like Chinese Wheat Gluten at this time and more likely not in the future as long as Chinese labor and manufacturing cost are so much lower.
Sure the Chicoms care about intellectual property. Otherwise, they wouldn't steal it with such regularity.
About 15 years ago some colleagues traveled to China to help set up a cell system in one of the major cities. Every single piece of test gear they took, and we're talking individual devices valued in excess of $50,000 each, were seized upon entry into the country. These devices were held by the government for a period of about 3 weeks. When the items were returned nothing worked and it was obvious that each piece of test gear had been taken apart and reassembled.
Good Post...
There’s an easier solution. Country of origin labeling. Then anyone who doesn’t want to buy Chinese won’t and the market will take care of itself.
Texas Instruments filed for a patent on the Intergrated Circuit (Invented by Jack Kilby) in Japan back in the late 50's. It was sometime in the eighties before Japan issued a Japanese patent. TI subsequently sued all the Japanese chip makers and won billions.
BTW, TI is the only company that the Japanese allowed to be wholly owned by foreigners. At last count, TI had five chip factories there.
The free market won’t give any kind of lesson to China unless there is ACCURATE LABELLING.
Nice to know who controls you, though, WSJ. Why don’t you kiss the ChiComs’ butts MORE?
Take a wild guess at the lawsuit liability the pet food companies are now under. Using Chinese ingredients, EVEN IF FREE, is fast shaping up to be too expensive for American companies
As a next step, look for juries to hold retailers like WalMart liable for any tainted food products sold thru their stores. The various large retailers will find potentially tainted Chinese goods to be too expensive to stock
Especially WalMart, as they have their own factories in China.
I stopped buying their bargain brands months ago, though still purchase food products with big-name labels. i.e.: The WalMart QV label (quality, value) fig newtons sell for $1.95 for the large package; on the same shelf, Nabisco newtons are $3.99. I wonder whether Nabisco manufactures a cheaper newton, possibly in China, for WalMart to sell for a cheaper price than other markets. So much to worry about.
I found a natural food store that sells bulk organic newtons for $2.89 and they're much tastier. But what are they made from? The largest US distributor to healthfood and natural stores (United National) just attended a big convention in HongKong last month; clearly they have nothing to sell to the Chinese, so they must be importing Chinese products to sell to health stores. At premium prices.
Who's left to trust?
Your right, I was only thinking about electronics, designer goods, music and movies.
I’d forgotten that they steal everything and apparently also contaminate and poison it as well.
COOL needs to have happened yesterday.
At my last Real Job, we often pursued World Patents. We never bothered patenting anything in China, because:
1) In order to write a patent, one must teach the Art. Why make it even easier for them, by citing, "In the following Example,one embodiment was prepared using 'Fictitium 110™, Made by Joe Blow Corporation, 200 Sunnyside Street, Cornhole, Nebraska..."
2) Imagine the bill from a place like Fish & Richardson for some of their IP People to commute back and forth to China, all the while being stonewalled by their bureaucracies and attitudes, and add to that the translation fees.
Shrug- They are going to steal it anyway. Why throw away the money? The best we can hope to do is to prevent them from selling copies in the US.
And you know that "Everything for Under a Dollar" type stores will buy the stuff regardless.
Store label foods are an interesting item from a liability point of view. Since the store is both manufacturer and retailer, the store cannot escape liability for any tainted ingredient in the product
Lots of luck finding out where ANYTHING is made. Almost all labelsnow read “Distributed by xxxx”. That means NOTHING.
That is the truth—very misleading too.
Government apparatchiks and their political masters care little until it affects their positions of power and prestige. American companies care less until it affects their bottom lines.
Yes it does. It is very frustrating too. Why can’t they say where they are made? Why can’t we know?
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