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US says will work with China on product safety
2008-11-19
BEIJING - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened a new office Wednesday in China's capital -- its first outside the United States -- as part of a new global strategy to ensure the safety of trillions of dollars of imports. Worries about the quality of Chinese exports to America have become a major feature of bilateral trade ties, with substandard Chinese food and toxin-laced toothpaste among product safety scares this past year. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said a new strategy was needed because the United States imported $2 trillion worth of goods this year. "When one sees the enormity of that, it becomes clear you cannot inspect everything," he said at a news conference Tuesday after a product safety workshop with Chinese officials. "We have to change our strategy from one of simple inspections at the border. We have to build quality into every product in every step of the process." The FDA office in Beijing will be followed by two more in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou. Offices will also be open in India next month and Latin America in January as the FDA tries to globalize its presence. The staffers will inspect local facilities, provide guidance on U.S. quality standards, and eventually train local experts to conduct inspections on behalf of the FDA. Leavitt and the agency's Food and Drug Commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach, said the new measures would include better technology for detecting contamination, greater demands for corporate responsibility and increased sharing of information. Experts say the FDA's presence may help solve some problems but the impetus still has to come from China. The FDA offices "can't hurt but it also can't do very much unless the Chinese want change and cooperate to make that happen," said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, who has consulted for the FDA. In the past year, China has increased inspections and tightened restrictions on food production and other industries, after a series of global product scandals. Most recently, dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine have been blamed in the deaths of at least three babies in China. Tens of thousands of other children were sickened. Last week, U.S. health officials imposed restrictions on imported foods from China, ordering dozens of imported foods from China held at the border. Most are ethnic treats, including snacks, drinks and chocolates. Von Eschenbach said Wednesday that the restrictions were needed to improve the stability of products going into the United States. But he said U.S. officials were working closely with their Chinese counterparts. "We look forward to working with them so we can resolve this issue in a way so that these products can move as freely as before," he said.
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