1970-01-01 08:33:27
EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva will travel to China next week for closer cooperation on consumer product safety, her spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
Helen Kearns told reporters that it is both in Europe''s and in China''s interests to improve cooperation on consumer product safety, while stressing the safety issue is not for compromise from the EU''s perspective.
Kearns said Kuneva''s visit is intended to ensure the current cooperation framework is functioning well, but she downplayed the possibility of any new deal to be signed.
The EU and China signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation for consumer goods safety last January, which provides the basis for bilateral cooperation in this field.
Since 2006, the EU has been relaying information to China of unsafe products of Chinese origin which were reported on the European market under the bloc''s alert system.
The EU wants China to use the information to take corrective action at the source, addressing the responsible manufacturer directly, it said.
John Bell, Kuneva''s cabinet chief, said in addition, the EU and China last October entered a roadmap for safer toys, which is the largest part of China''s unsafe products identified in Europe.
And the EU is also providing training for Chinese officials and manufacturers, helping them to better understand the 27-nation bloc''s technical standards, which were sometimes criticized by developing countries as trade barriers.
An EU report said last year nearly half of the reported unsafe products originated from China. A large proportion of these products were toys and electrical appliances.
Bell said part of the reason is the high volume of imports into the EU from China.
Thanks to the bilateral cooperation, there is no indication of growing tide of China''s unsafe products, he added.
During her five-day visit, Kuneva will meet relevant Chinese officials and representatives from industry and consumer groups. She will visit a toy factory as well as the national laboratory for toy testing in Yangzhou of Jiangsu province.
Source: Xinhua