Chinese Government Moving Into Product Design Business?
Ken Ross, a well known product safety lawyer out of Minneapolis, wrote me yesterday regarding a U.S. client of his that had contacted him regarding a new Chinese government product safety initiative. Ross's client has a Shenzhen factory making small appliances for sale in the U.S., similar to product that was recently recalled in the U.S. "As a result of this recall, the China Inspection and Quarantine Bureau ("CIQ") investigated and basically redesigned this product and then informed all manufacturers of this product located in Shenzhen that they must immediately redesign and rework these products according to CIQ-specified design mandates."
The manufacturers can get around this government redesign requirement only if they "guarantee" there will not be a recall of their product in the U.S. Therefore, we now have the Chinese government so concerned about the possibility of future recalls that they are redesigning products and then requiring manufacturers to make these changes if they want to be able to continue to export their products.
This is the first I have heard of anything like this. Has anyone heard about the Chinese government doing this for any products? What happens if the "guarantee" is violated? Criminal liability? Any ideas on what is going on here?
Comments
What's the consquence? The revoking of your exportion license,period,if there is any recall related to your products.
As I said before Chinese CCP are very serious this time,they will use the same way-even same person-to interven the crises as they did to SRAS scandal.
Maybe it's not a good way to resolve,but the more important things are the speed and the efficent.This is the only way that in a very short time a crisis like this will die dowm.For sure ,other things ,which I think Steve in CLB has expressed very nicely,are needed to be done too.
But anyway the mothod CCP is uing is a very efficent way to extingush ,or at least contain fire in a very short time.
Posted by: steven | August 25, 2007 11:56 PM
The enforcement of this law will depend on who is handing out the citation. If it is the federales from Beijing, the violator is busted (unless they have a way to appeal to provincial court and delay forever), if it is a provincial inspector, the citation will end up in the circular file.
But I doubt any factory would be closed unless there is a severe violation (lead paint, asbestos, formaldehyde, etc) that would be cause for a massive product recall abroad. Sloppy coffee makers are ok, toxic cough syrup is not.
Posted by: nanheyangrouchuan | August 26, 2007 11:41 AM