Recall revenge possible in China

BEIJING -- Stung by a spate of safety recalls of its products, China hinted Thursday it might take retaliatory action against U.S. products exported to China.

Earlier this week, China rejected a batch of U.S.-made pacemakers and said U.S. soybean farmers sent shipments tainted with pesticide and weeds.

On Thursday, the State Council, China's Cabinet, released a statement saying China's government would return or destroy all improperly imported meat, fruit and recycled waste by the end of the year and would improve the monitoring of other imports.

Gao Hucheng, a vice minister of commerce, pointedly reminded a news conference that China is poised to overtake Japan as the third-largest market for U.S. exports. A Commerce Ministry handout, though, mentioned "discordant notes" in bilateral trade ties, citing media coverage of safety issues among the problems.

Gao accused American news organizations of grossly exaggerating problems with China's exports. "The Chinese government thinks certain media . . . sensationalize the quality problems of Chinese products," Gao said. "Deliberate sensationalism and overstatement will not be accepted by China."

Retaliation by China against U.S. products would be especially costly for American agricultural exporters. U.S. soybean shipments to China are valued at $3 billion annually, and grain shippers were waiting to learn whether China would take action after it announced Wednesday that it had detected "numerous quality problems" with U.S. soybeans arriving earlier in the year.

A U.S. soybean industry representative in Beijing dismissed China's complaints.

"It's all nonsense," said Phillip Laney, country director from the U.S. Soybean Export Council. "It's a public-relations ploy to divert attention from themselves and say 'Everyone's got problems.' "

For the past six months, China has been roiled by charges that unscrupulous exporters sent tainted toothpaste and pet food, faulty tires, dangerous toys and other unsafe products around the globe. The recalls have generated a backlash among some consumers against all Chinese products.

Assistant Minister of Commerce Wang Chao acknowledged that backlash at the news conference, saying safety concerns have "affected sales of some 'Made in China' goods." But he noted that the nation's exports continued to increase.

Earlier this month, Mattel, the world's largest toy maker, recalled 18 million Chinese-made toys, saying they may contain paint with lead or small magnets that can come loose. Mattel's Fisher-Price unit later recalled 1.5 million more toys.

In the wake of earlier recalls, China seized some U.S. shipments of orange pulp and dried apricots that it said contained excessive bacteria, mildew and sulfur dioxide.

On Monday, China announced that it had rejected part of a shipment of pacemakers. The standards agency said units in a batch of 272 pacemakers that arrived in April from St. Jude Medical of St. Paul, Minn., contained labels that didn't accurately reflect the voltage settings of the devices.

"As a result, they could create major hidden dangers in the lives of sick people," said a statement by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine., the nation's standards agency.