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Consumer confidence

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-16 07:37

What did people expect to read in papers and on the Internet or watch on TV on World Consumer Rights Day yesterday?

Well, it's obvious - typical cases of how consumer rights are violated, advice from experts about how consumers should protect themselves, and the hollow promises of manufacturers and service providers about quality products and services.

Consumers feel cheated when told butchers have added water to the meat they eat, and merchants or manufacturers restless when blacklists of problematic products and companies are published.

While such a day is not ideal, we nevertheless need it.

China's Consumer Association and subordinate organizations received more than 6 million complaints and more than 4 million visits or inquires last year. Their responses have helped victims retrieve more than 600 million yuan in economic losses.

These figures were down on the year before. But complaints about problematic services or products in some particular fields, such as food, are reportedly on the rise.

Consumers do not know when they will be completely relieved from the dangers and associated fears of being cheated or ripped off.

The shadow of the baby formula scandal last year still lingers, and quite a number of consumers are still afraid of drinking milk or eating dairy products. With melamine exposed as a non-edible substance added to some food, consumers cannot be sure what other inedible products are being used.

We sincerely hope that all problematic products or unsafe food are caused by negligence. But that's not the case. Money worship has eroded some business people's sense of social responsibility.

At this point, effective enforcement of existing legal codes and new laws are needed to penalize the bad apples and prevent them from resuming businesses where their illegal behavior has ruined the reputation of a particular product and shaken consumer confidence.

To be honest, the central government has done a great deal in past decades to tighten product quality and food safety controls.

A new law on food safety was just adopted by the National People's Congress Standing Committee two weeks ago, packing more severe penalties for violators and detailed specifications for food manufacturing and processing management.

After the economic slowdown bites to make stimulation of domestic consumption a priority for national recovery, strong consumer confidence will make a huge difference to the scale of consumption.

So product and service quality controls must be extended as various types of schemes are devised to expand domestic demand.

Only when no room exists for anyone to make dirty money by cheating consumers will consumer trust conducive to ever- greater growth truly exist.

(China Daily 03/16/2009 page4)