After
a series of safety incidents related to
food and pet food products from China, plus
other research showing potential issues
with Chinese imports (See Will
Safety Issues with Toys Made in China Cause
Regulatory Backlash?), influential
U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer from New York
is saying the country may need a full time
“imports czar” to oversee safety
regulations on offshored goods.
"China
has no system of inspecting goods"
before they're exported, Schumer said. "The
collapse of our product-safety-inspection
agencies is a tragedy waiting to happen."
Last
week, in just the latest in what appears
to be a series of incidents, safety concerns
arose over automobile tires imported from
China
(see Chinese
Import Tires May Fail at Highway Speeds).
As a result of these incidents, concerns
over Chinese imports are ratcheting up.
Whether the
percentage of faulty or potentially dangerous
products coming from China is actually any
greater than domestically produced goods
is open to question, though it also seems
clear current Chinese manufacturing processes,
regulatory standards and enforcement are
still immature versus the state of affairs
in most Western nations and Japan.
Sen.
Schumer has also been an important critic
of offshoring generally, and China
specifically. He recently co-sponsored a
Senate bill that calls for trade penalties
against China
for allegedly manipulating its currency
to favor its exports.
"The
purpose of this legislation is to force
change," Schumer recently said.
In the absence
of much concern over Chinese imports from
U.S. consumers, happy with low prices even
if there is a negative impact on employment
(See Have
Distorted Statistics Understated the Negative
Impact of Offshoring and US Manufacturing
Competitiveness?), Supply Chain
Digest suspects Schumer may see the safety
issue as another path to the same goal –
reduce the level of Chinese imports, one
perhaps more likely to capture voter attention. |