OPINION> Commentary
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OPINION> Commentary
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Ensuring product safety
By Meglena Kuneva (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-11 07:52
As EU Commissioner for Consumer Policy, I began an official visit to China from yesterday. This is my second visit to China in a little over one month; I previously accompanied EU President Jose Manuel Barroso during his unprecedented series of talks with Premier Wen Jiabao to take forward the EU-China strategic partnership and to launch the High Level Dialogue Mechanism, which will address key concerns in the trade relationship. The principal aim of my return visit is to take stock of the progress with regard to the commitments made a year ago during my visit in July 2007 to strengthen EU-China product safety controls. The visit will also provide an opportunity to discuss plans for future co-operation, in particular, the revision of the current EU-China Memorandum of Understanding on consumer product safety and the preparation of the first outreach meeting involving the EU, the US and China in Beijing in September as well as the first EU-China-US trilateral summit on product safety in Brussels this November. However, I am also very aware that I am the first EU commissioner to visit China since the terrible earthquake that struck Sichuan province on May 12 and I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate the sincere condolences that the president of the Commission has already conveyed to the victims and their families as well as pledge the continuing support of the European Union toward the relief efforts. When news of the disaster first came through, the EU immediately sent a team of humanitarian experts to the earthquake zone. This worked with the Red Cross to put in place immediate relief. Since then, the EU and its member states have mounted a huge logistics effort to bring vitally-needed supplies to the region.
Over 30 special flights from Europe have brought hundreds of tons of tents, medical supplies, field hospitals (and medical staff) and water-purification equipment and specialists. We have provided satellite images using the very latest European radar technology, as well as a team of scientists from the European Commission's Joint Research Center, specialized in damage assessment and reconstruction planning. And we have offered further expertise in the field of environment, engineering and construction standards. The plight of the people in Sichuan, and their resilience and courage facing the disaster has deeply moved people in Europe. And, just as in China itself, donations from private individuals and enterprises have exceeded aid from governments. Altogether I expect the EU and its people to contribute more than 100 million euros to the relief effort. Whilst the overriding priority at the moment in China remains the earthquake relief effort, we must still not lose sight of our important day-to-day work concerning consumer safety. During my visit to China, I will meet Mr Li Changjiang, the Minister responsible for General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), and Mr Zhou Bohua, the Minister for Industry and Commerce, to discuss, among other topics, the results of the EU report "Evaluation of the safety measures in the toy supply chain" and also the effectiveness of the RAPEX-China alert system for dangerous products including the quarterly reporting. The share of notifications on products of Chinese origin submitted through the RAPEX (Rapid Alert System for non-food consumer products) system in 2007 increased by 3 percentage points compared to 2006 (49 percent in 2006, 52 percent in 2007). However, it does not necessarily mean that there were more dangerous Chinese goods on the European market in 2007. In fact it seems that the knowledge on the origin of products is better since the share of products of unknown origin notified through RAPEX significantly decreased in 2007 compared to previous years (20 percent in 2005, 17 percent in 2006 and 13 percent in 2007). Certain products which had been notified in previous years as being of unknown origin were probably of Chinese origin. There are positive outcomes emerging from the great efforts being made by the Chinese and EU authorities to improve the safety of Chinese products reaching the EU market. For instance, the Chinese authorities investigated 432 RAPEX notifications since the launch of "RAPEX-China" application and, where appropriate, took follow-up measures to stop the trade or have the goods improved. I firmly believe that it is the shared interest of both China and the European Union to work in partnership to strengthen consumer confidence and to fully exploit the benefits of the EU-China product safety systems currently in place. The author is European Commissioner for Consumer Policy (China Daily 06/11/2008 page9) |
