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Posted on 04/28/2008 7:58:55 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
China on Monday went on the offensive against claims that it allows exports of sub-standard or counterfeit products to Kenya.
Pointing fingers at importers whom he claimed choose to buy low quality goods, China’s ambassador to Kenya, Zhang Ming said his country also manufactures high quality products, but most traders in Kenya prefer to buy products “which are not of very good quality.”
Addressing a China-Africa forum at the Nairobi Safari Club, the envoy noted: “We can produce good quality products, and Chinese businesses sell them. Good products are plentiful in China, so why buy low quality?”
He was responding to queries raised by traders who said that they normally get good quality samples from Chinese manufacturers, but after placing orders, they are shocked to discover the products are of a much lower grade. Nevertheless, China remains Kenya’s major source of imports. Imports from China have risen steadily, from Sh6 billion in 2002 to Sh29.7 billion in 2006 to rank third after India (Sh37.7 billion) and South Africa (Sh33.9 billion).
On the other hand, Kenya’s exports to China remain subdued having moved from Sh375 million in 2002 to Sh1.5 billion in 2006, according to Kenya government’s Economic Survey 2007.
The envoy said that when he came to Kenya in 2006, he was proud to see televisions, refrigerators and motor vehicles made in China.
However, he said his joy was short lived as a few months later he was confronted with counterfeit products claims on goods, especially batteries, from China.
Investigate
To investigate the claims, the ambassador took a walk along Nairobi’s River Road, where he met a trader selling Chinese-made shoes of low quality, at Sh400 a pair.
“When I asked him why he was selling low quality shoes, he told me; ‘if I don’t sell such shoes people will walk bare foot’. This seller made rethink about this issue. Maybe he has reason to do such business.”
In 2006, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and Chinese Quality Assurance Institute signed an accord in Beijing that compelled the institute to check on counterfeits and quality of goods destined to Kenya.
It is tempting to think of all the stuff that comes from China as being cheap junk.
It isn’t.
Here in NZ they often use us as a test base for some of their manufactured goods.
Their industrial tools are world-class, and (so far) a fraction of the cost of comparable Japanese goods.
Their steel goods are still pretty crappy — there is still no substitute for Sheffield Steel — but that will change fairly quickly.
Don’t dismiss China out-of-hand. People used to do that with Japanese goods, within my lifetime. That proved a very costly mistake to American manufacturers in particular.
China and India (we get alot of Indian goods here, too) will be next to ambush the west. I think Japan and Korea are in for a nasty shock soon.
China is undergoing a lot of internal political stress. We’ll see if the wheels don’t come off the cart.
Yeah, that Heparin that’s killing people is first class.
Why you makee complain? You get good-good bargain: You plenty cheap buy batteries; we give free switch!
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