Washington: China has signed an agreement with the US to prohibit the use of lead paint on toys exported to the United States.
This comes in the wake of the recall of millions of Chinese toys tainted with toxic lead paint in the US. The agreement was signed at the Sino-US Consumer Product Safety Summit.
China has agreed to increase inspections of toys headed to the United States. The agreement seeks to ease the worries of US parents ahead of the Christmas shopping season.
China supplies almost 80 per cent of the toys sold in the US. Mattel Inc, the world's largest toymaker, has recalled more than 2 million Chinese-made toys since August
In the pact, Beijing also pledged to step up inspections of its exports and take other steps to ensure that those products meet US standards, said Nancy Nord, acting head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. That will include joint efforts by the two countries to increase understanding of those standards among manufacturers and exporters.
The absence of such an understanding allowed paint suppliers to provide lead paint to companies making toys sold by Mattel Inc. and other companies, said Chuanzhong Wei, vice minister of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. Lead paint has been banned on toys made in the US. since 1978.
"That's why we decided we should intensify the exchanges between importers and exporters in the field of standards," Wei said, speaking through a translator.
US and Chinese regulators also agreed to hold regular product safety talks, including monthly discussions of recall activity and trends, Nord said. China also will help the CPSC trace products to their source when problems do arise.
The United States and China also agreed to cooperate on improving the overall safety of the latter country's toy exports, as well as fireworks, cigarette lighters and electrical products.
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