Keeping Sub Standard And Carcinogenic Chinese Exports Out Of Nigeria

By

Anthony Okosun

tonyosun@yahoo.co.uk

USA

 

The whole developed world  is currently wildly alarmed by the gross incompetence and ineptitude demonstrated by Chinese manufacturers in the area of health fitness, quality and standards of virtually all Chinese exports. My personal worry is whether the relevant Nigerian authorities are paying proper necessary attention to this unfolding blizzard. Majority of Nigerians are illiterate and are therefore unenlightened consumers who may never hear of this current global alarm. Thus the indispensability for the Nigerian authorities especially NAFDAC and the Federal Ministries of Commerce and Health and the Department of Customs and other relevant bodies to pay more attention to Chinese goods coming into Nigeria.

 

Apprehension and presentiment over the safety of Chinese exports began a couple of years back but got more global attention earlier this year, when the deaths of dogs and cats in North America were linked to pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine. China state media have reported that Chinese toothpaste producers' use a potentially toxic chemical found in antifreeze.

 

Countries in North and South America, as well as Asia, have recently halted imports of Chinese-made toothpaste due to its content of diethylene glycol, a low-cost and sometimes deadly substitute for glycerin. China's Ministry of Health announced a recall of two brands of diapers spot checks found to contain excessive fungus. Authorities did not say if the diapers, made in the northern province of Hebei, and in Fujian province in the south, and sold under the brand names Haobeir and Jinglianbangshuang, had been exported or if they had caused problems for any children. The  U.S. authorities have  banned or turned away a long list of Chinese products, including toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint. Most recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would detain five kinds of Chinese seafood after repeated testing turned up contamination with drugs not approved in America for use in farmed seafood.

 

In March tainted pet food originating in China was found to be killing animals in America.

Since then Chinese shipments of toxic toothpaste, toys and seafood, as well as hundreds of thousands of faulty tyres, have all caused big safety scares, not just in the U.S.A., but around the globe. The defective and carcinogenic goods that have long been a health hazard for ordinary Chinese proletariat consumers are beginning to spread to the outside world—a trend that is escalating fear about China's blossoming exports. Stories of dangerously sub standard manufacturing within China are becoming old tales. In 2004 bogus baby formula killed dozens of infants. More recently the Chinese media have reported half a dozen dead and many ill from a flawed antibiotic, 11 dead from tainted injections, 56 people ill as a result of contaminated meat, toxic snacks pulled off shelves and fake blood protein discovered in hospitals.

                 

China's product safety failings include  mislabeled chemical exports found in cough syrup in Panama and pet food in the United States. Problem goods included jelly snacks, drinks, canned fruit, water dispensers and dried fish, with many foods containing high levels of bacteria or additives. One fifth of fruit drinks failed inspection. Fertilizers, pesticides and other farming products also had an overall failure rate of 19.5 percent.

 

On July 1st Charles Schumer, an American senator who is a vocal critic of China, issued a report noting that 60% of goods recalled by America's main safety regulator came from China. In June alone, the report says, dangerous faults or poisons prompted the recall of 68,000 folding chairs, 2,300 toy barbecue grills,1.2m space heaters,5,300 earrings,

1.5m “Thomas the Tank Engine” toy trains and 19,000 children's necklaces. America's Food and Drug Administration has also rejected several shipments of contaminated food from China this year, and a wholesaler in New Jersey has recalled Chinese chocolates containing potentially carcinogenic ingredients. In Panama around 100 people are reported to have died after ingesting tainted cough syrup from China.

 

The European Union has also expressed concern

 

In May the head of the agency that regulates Chinese food and drugs, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death for accepting bribes in exchange for licenses to produce fake drugs and medical devices. A report from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, China's standards watchdog, said that 20% of domestic products tested had failed to meet safety standards.

 

Chinese authorities attempted to first play down or ignore international concerns, and have reacted defensively by highlighting problems with imports from other countries.

However, the government seems to have realized that bringing its product safety standards in line with those of  the international community could help protect its future economic growth. The  Chinese authorities are slowly beginning to accept the obvious fact that standards in China are  much lower than that of the developed world. China's food safety watchdog reported on problems with nearly a fifth of products made for domestic consumption in the first half of this year.

 

The worrying fact is if the advanced countries are able to clamp and clasp china in their unholy and ignoble low standards and demand seriously higher internationally acceptable standards; are African countries and the rest of the third world also able to check the Chinese economic and export wild, charlatan and defrauder dragon. Nigeria's situation is particularly worrying with our well known laxity and penchant for unscrupulousness and venality where anything goes for whoever is able to offer gravy and grease.

 

What would be the fate of Nigerians? This question becomes very pertinent when one realises that China since joining the World Trade Organisation has become a major exporter of consumer goods and low, medium and high technological products to Africa especially Nigeria.